Last year, JINC helped more than 20,000 young people from low income and disadvantaged backgrounds between the ages of eight and 16 to experience what the labour market can offer them and the skills they will need to develop in order to succeed.

JINC is funded by more than 500 companies and offers various activities, such as language trips, flash internships, job application training, advice on starting your own business, social skills and career training. Foundation volunteers work on these projects throughout the year.

The Foundation is the main sponsor of the project “Starting up your own business”. This gives vocational secondary school students a realistic idea about the daily routine of running a business. Coaches from the business community guide the students through the assignments in six, two-hour meetings over a twelve-week period.

Another part of the Foundation’s collaboration with JINC was to send members of Deloitte’s Executive Board and senior management to spend a day at the Marcanti College in Amsterdam. Secondary school students, aged between fourteen and sixteen, were given lessons on how to improve their interview technique and better understand the job application process. These interactive group sessions covered important aspects of body language and the effect that attitude and appearance has on a potential employer. The sessions also included vital communications skills, such as shaking hands and making eye contact.

The lessons were well received by the children who provided feedback about their own schoolmates in mock interview situations. Similarly, the experience was profoundly rewarding for Deloitte’s executives and managers, who developed a deeper understanding of the personal and professional challenges facing young people in deprived areas.

‘It is great fun to support the pupils while also meeting with employees of other companies. What’s more, the teachers and the school board are very enthusiastic too’

Thomas Schlaman, volunteer JINC