- Young people under 35 have enjoyed a
high-performance scholarship in Brussels for a period of between 3 and 7 months
- The Finnova Foundation has welcomed more
than 220 fellows at its headquarters in Brussels since 2012 to work in the
projects, communication, administration and legal departments
- One of Finnova’s priority objectives is
the education and training of young people, encouraging the return of talent
and promoting a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship
- In addition, Finnova has managed the
internships of more than 200 young people in Brussels through European mobility
programs such as Talentium or the Dipu te Eurobeca
Brussels, July 15,
2020 – On the
occasion of World Youth Skills Day, the Finnova Foundation reiterates its
commitment to young people within the framework of SDG 4 of the United Nations
2030 Agenda on quality education, to ´guarantee inclusive, equitable and
inclusive education quality and promote lifelong learning opportunities for
all.’ Finnova, through its two priority lines of action – the education and
training of young Spaniards and the improvement of their employability and the
return of talent – promotes a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, of
vital importance for the access of young people to better jobs.
‘In recent years, youth unemployment rates in the European Union have
risen to unprecedented levels due to the economic crisis or the coronavirus.
This makes it more important to improve the employability of young people
through programs such as international training practices’, explains Alberto
Navarro, director of Training and Employment at the Finnova Foundation. ‘Traineeships
are essential to facilitate the transition from the educational system to the
world of work, but in many cases, they are carried out incorrectly, such as
when they are not used to the maximum advantage. the capacities of young people’,
he affirms.
Since 2016, Finnova has welcomed 220 fellows from Spain, but also from
other countries in Europe and Latin America at its headquarters in Brussels to
improve their training in European affairs, innovation and entrepreneurship
from the different areas of the foundation such as those of EU projects,
European law and consumer protection, communication and marketing,
administration and finance, among others.
‘From the Finnova Foundation, we are committed to young people and their
training, that is why we design training programs tailored to each one,
attending from the first moment to their interests and motivations and
monitoring the day-to-day development of the rooms to detect any problem that
may arise and solve it immediately. In addition, we especially take into
account the “day after” the scholarship ends, preparing, for example,
the candidates to carry out the internships in one of the European institutions
such as the Parliament or the Commission’ says Alberto Navarro.
‘It was a great experience’ says Adrián Noheda, a former fellow of the
Dipu te Eurobeca in Finnova and, currently, director of the SMEs Innovation
Area of the Finnova Foundation in Valencia. ‘It opened many doors for me by
allowing me to have an experience in an international environment and by being
in contact with European organizations; gave me a close look at how Europe
works; in addition, working with European projects offers many opportunities’
he adds.
In addition, more than 200 young people have enjoyed a high-performance
stay for a period of between five and seven months in Brussels thanks to the
Talentium Jaén mobility program, the Dipu te Eurobeca, the Hebe Plan:
Eurobecas, the Badajoz Europe Scholarships , Fuerteventura Europa and Genius de
Tarragona that has been managed by the Finnova Foundation. The participants of
these mobility programs have also had the continuous support of the Finnova
team in Brussels through an individual mentoring program to develop their
projects according to their professional interests.
The young beneficiaries of these programs have carried out training
stays in organizations such as Microsoft, the Departments of Employment,
Education and Culture of the Embassy of Spain, KIC Innoenergy, the Embassy of
Panama, CEOE, UNED, Eureka Network, Water Europe , the European Business Angels
Network (EBAN), the European Center for Political and Social Studies (CEPS),
Turespaña, the European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN), the
Spanish Chamber, the European Schools or the EFE Agency, among many others.
From Brussels, Juanma Revuelta, CEO of the Foundation and the Erasmus
Prize of the EU, encourages young Spaniards to take advantage of the training
opportunities offered by the European Union. As an example, one of the programs
he recommends is the PICE Mobility grant from the European Social Fund,
coordinated by the Spanish Chamber and offered through some Chambers of
Commerce. These scholarships provide young people with the opportunity to do
internships abroad for a period of 3 to 6 months.
Internship at Finnova
The Finnova Foundation participates
as a host entity in different European programs so that young people from any
country can enjoy training stays in the offices of the European neighbourhood
of Brussels, the city of Seville or Valencia. Its learning by doing methodology
allows young people to learn on-site and through daily work, which is combined
with parallel training in financing and European programs. The objective of the
Foundation is to contribute to the development of capacities in the management of
European funds. In fact, Finnova recently has the educational gamification
platform that it has developed in close collaboration with Play & go
experience. It is a virtual space that has a complete course on the LIFE
program of the European Commission, thanks to which participants can learn to
write a proposal successfully.
Some European programs, such as the
Assembly of the Regions of Europe Eurodyssey or the European Social Fund
PICE Mobility scholarships managed by the Chambers of Commerce, have
open calls at the moment and there are published internship offers to start
in the summer months.
More information about the mobility programs
managed by Finnova
In recent years, the Finnova
Foundation has supported different public entities such as Provincial Councils,
Councils and City Councils in creating their own mobility programs. These are
some of the most relevant examples:
The
Dipu te Eurobeca is a program promoted by the Diputación
de València with the support of the Finnova Foundation to carry out
internships in organizations and companies in Brussels, the community capital,
which also offers mentoring, assistance for uninterrupted emergencies,
informative alerts with opportunities, events of interest and training actions
(seminars, round tables, fairs and meetings) in relevant areas such as European
projects, EU communication, environment and energy, entrepreneurship and
employment, among others. He has been recognized with the Seal of Excellence of
the Interns Go Pro organization and highlighted as one of the best eight
scholarships in Europe by Le Figaro newspaper, ahead of institutions such as
the British Council.
A total of 25 young people from Jaen in the first
edition and 37 in the second, have carried out work practices in companies and
entities, both public and private, based in Brussels through the Talentium
scholarships that have been convened by the Jaén Provincial Council
with the support of Finnova and that are aimed at facilitating the insertion
and job training of young university graduates, graduates or Higher Level
Vocational Training in unemployment. This initiative, which is part of the
Diputación’s Employment Plan, means providing young people with one more
resource when it comes to finding and developing a job upon their return to the
province of Jaén. It should be noted that the Talentium Jaén program has been
awarded by the Andalusian Government in Brussels for its work promoting young
employment.
The Huelva Provincial Council has also
supported itself since 2018 in Finnova to launch the HEBE PLAN: Eurobecas
annually for the concession of 5 paid scholarships in Brussels that include a
travel bag and health insurance. Young people from the province of Huelva, with
a university degree and unemployed, have enjoyed six months of paid non-labor
internships in Brussels granted through the Eurobeca program and convened by
the Local Development Area of the Huelva Provincial Council, as one more
commitment to the provincial institution for the training and employment of the
youth of the province.
The Badajoz Provincial Council, with the
support of the Finnova Foundation, has also launched the first call for the EUROPEAN
SCHOLARSHIPS, thanks to which a total of 16 young people from the province
of La Paz have benefited from a professional stay in the heart of Europe with
scholarships from the Badajoz County Council. Specifically, in this first
edition, scholarships have been awarded to 16 young people for five months of
professional stay. The beneficiaries also have a university degree or a
bachelor’s degree, with a high level of knowledge in foreign languages.
One of the young beneficiaries of this first edition
was Carlos Periáñez Fit, who developed his practices at the Delegation of the
Spanish Chamber of Commerce to the European Union just a few months ago and who
is currently doing his practices in Finnova through the PICE Mobility grant. ‘It
has been crucial for me to have had the opportunity to open my professional
path thanks to both the EUROPEAN SCHOLARSHIPS of the Provincial Council of La
Paz and the PICE Scholarships offered by the chambers of commerce. I am
grateful to be able to enjoy this prolonged professional stay, since it has
allowed me to be closer to the European institutions and to learn the basic
fundamentals of marketing’ he says.
The Tarragona Provincial Council has promoted,
with the support of Finnova, a new program to promote the employment of
unemployed people in Camp de Tarragona, the Ebro Lands and Baix Penedès. A
total of 15 people, under 35, with higher education and unemployed will benefit
from the Genius Program, an initiative that offers training practices
abroad for 5 months in entities and institutions of the European Union and a
sixth additional month in a local entity of the demarcation. The Genius Program
aims to train unemployed people in strategic sectors of interest to the
demarcation of Tarragona. Training practices are carried out in Brussels from
September 2020 to become professional in areas such as tourism, energy
efficiency, sustainability, information management, projects and cooperation
networks in the European Union.
The Fuerteventura Council, for its part, has
been the first public entity to offer the specific training program in European
projects for young people in its region: Fuerteventura Europe. They have
launched a call through which three young people from Fuerteventura will enjoy
a six-month training period in which prior training in European funds from
their region will be combined with a four-month stay in the city of Brussels
with the aim of ensuring that learn all the writing, participation and
management tools in EU projects in order to raise funds in your community.
About Finnova
Finnova is the
European Foundation for the financing of innovation. Its objectives are to
promote private public cooperation through the technology transfer of low-cost
solutions among the best technologies available to address social challenges
such as employment, entrepreneurship, the United Nations SDGs, the circular
economy, waste recovery, tourism sustainable or the fight against climate
change. http://finnova.eu/
