On January 25–27, ten young business professionals from Sony met with representatives from streetfootballworld network members SALT Academy and Colombianitos to launch a special module of the European Graduate Programme (EGP).
The EGP is Sony Europe’s young professionals’ programme. As the final module of the two-year programme, graduates work with streetfootballworld network members to apply the skills and the theory they have learned at various stations in Sony’s European offices not only in a practical situation, but also in an environment that differs significantly from the world of business they are used to.
Three successful years of collaboration
This is the third year that a social component with streetfootballworld – facilitated by Impact International – is part of the EGP.
This year, Colombianitos and SALT Academy will benefit from the graduates’ support. While sharing their skills and knowledge, the graduates will learn about daily life in a social organisation, how to adapt to a new environment, and how to solve the challenges that arise during the project phase.
More awareness
Through the scheme, Colombianitos will receive help creating a marketing strategy to raise awareness of the organisation’s programme. The network member aims to attract new donors, volunteers and partners in order to ensure the sustainability of their programmes and to set up new sites across the country.
“It is sometimes hard to get our message across,” explained Sandra from Colombianitos.
“The graduates will bring a new perspective to our programme, and with their help we will hopefully be able to tell everyone about the great work we are doing in the communities.”
Growing sustainable
SALT Academy confronted the graduates with a two-fold proposal: the organisation is looking to build a strategy for the administration of its scholarship initiative for the Mighty Girls Programme. Furthermore, SALT would also like to set up a long-term fundraising strategy to build its own football facilities.
Shannon from SALT sees the involvement in the EGP as an opportunity to plan ahead.
“We have a lot of amazing ideas,” she said, “but we are lacking the human resources to put them in place.
"We are growing quite quickly and we want this to happen in a sustainable way. You always have to take into account that innovations are great, but not if a failure would put people at risk.”
A win-win situation for everyone involved
The two days of getting to know each other and first consultations passed by quickly. The graduates had the opportunity to ask their clients about their organisations, and tested out remote communication with Cambodia where Sam Schweingruber, SALT's founder, and two Mighty Girls spoke over Skype with their new consultants. As the graduates will have to work with the network members from their home city, communication will be crucial.
Development through Football in Lisbon
Another highlight of the launch event was a visit to streetfootballworld network member CAIS in Lisbon. The group learned about CAIS’s programmes with homeless people, visited the facilities in the city and played a round of football3 with CAIS participants and some of the young people who attended the European Street Football Festival in Belgrade 2011.
Making a difference
“For the graduates, this module will be a great challenge. They now have the responsibility to deliver a product that will have a real impact in a community,” noted Carol-Ann Spencer, Senior Management Mentor of the EGP.
The social module with streetfootballworld is also in line with Sony’s CSR strategy. Serge Foucher, Sony Executive Vice President, emphasised the importance of employees become part of the company’s CSR activities, saying: “As a member of a company active in social responsibility they learn that they can have an impact, too.”
