Cellnex Telecom and United Way launch a program to reduce school dropout and promote youth employability

• The program, named “Youth Challenge Cellnex”, focused on fighting school dropout and promoting youth employment, also promoting professional training in telecommunications.
• The soul of the program will be the 60 volunteers, employees in Cellnex, who will act as “coaches” and mentors and will give theoretical and practical training sessions to students who are studying “Programa de Formación e Inserción”, which is the first level of professional training in the Spanish educational system and to students in the Vocational Training area.
• The project will be carried out at the Institut Mare de Deu La Mercè in Barcelona and will begin in January 2020 and develop over the next few years. The Institute and its teachers are also fundamental parts of this program that seeks to bring business and educational centre closer together.
• The project is managed by United Way and executed in collaboration with the Exit Foundation, Alwa Social Entrepreneurship and the Bertelsmann Foundation, all entities specialized in promoting educational innovation and equal opportunities, aspects included in SDG number 4.

Barcelona, 23 December 2019.- “To solve our community problems we need the engagement of all the members”. This is the idea from which the telecommunications infrastructure operator, Cellnex Telecom and United Way have put the program “Youth Challenge Cellnex” in motion in collaboration with several education entities and public organizations.

The objectives of the program are to fight high School dropout and prmote in youth employability by creating a close bond between them and the company, while simultaneously elevating the vocational training curriculum in Telecommunications.

This initiative, which will take place in the High School Mare de Dèu de La Mercé in Barcelona, is designed for several grades in the centre, and specially the students of the Telecommunications studies. In total, around 70 students, this first year.

Even though the principal objective of this project is to reduce the dropout rates and promote youth employability, the initiative also contemplates several secondary objectives that will be tackled transversally. Amongst them, the students’ empowerment, the use of their skills to undertake projects and the corporate volunteers’ and teachers’ engagement to achieve motivating students on their formation journey and finding a job.

One part of the program will be developed with the youth (16 years and older) that are in the PFI Grade (initials in Catalan and Castilian for Formation and Insertion Program), a course that is the bridge between secondary studies to access the “Medium Grade”, which in Spain follows the basic training and is specialised. To achieve that these young students continue their education they will count with the support of the company’s volunteers – formed as coaches with the help of the EXIT Foundation – who will accompany them so they will find their motivation and discover different professional options. The objectives are to achieve that this young people continue with their education, better their self-esteem and succeed in building a future from the reality of a company.

On the other hand, these students and also the Middle and Higher Grade students will benefit from the presentations or training sessions by CELLNEX experts and will visit centres operated by the company so that in a practical way, and the transmission of knowledge and employee experience, students improve their skills. The objective here is to facilitate the incorporation into the working world of the students of telecommunications and raise the academic curriculum, bringing both students and teachers closer to the reality of the sector.

In addition, the students of PFI and Middle Grade will carry out three workshops of active, collaborative and experiential learning which will be imparted by ALWA, in which the group of students and volunteers will be presented with a social challenge to which they must respond using technology, robotics and programming.

Finally, the last part of the program will benefit the students that are finishing their degree. Reaffirming its commitment to the Dual Vocational Training model, under the auspices of the Bertelsmann Foundation through their Dual Vocational Training Alliance, Cellnex will invite some students to do paid internships in the company. Thus, narrowing the link between the educational/training centre and the business centre. Something essential that is crucial for getting a job tomorrow.

United Way is responsible for the coordination and management of all actions included in the project, as well as the operation of the corporate volunteer program.

With this program, Cellnex also wants to give a response to one of the goals included in the company’s CSR Master Plan, reflecting its corporate values ​​of commitment and innovation, contributing to the construction of a fairer society providing value and positive impact to the community.

About Cellnex Telecom

Cellnex Telecom is the leading European wireless telecommunications infrastructure operator, with a projected portfolio of 54,000 locations, including deployment forecasts until 2027. Cellnex operates in Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Cellnex’s business is structured in four main areas: services for telecommunications infrastructure, audiovisual broadcasting networks, security and emergency network services, and solutions for the intelligent management of urban infrastructure and services (Smart cities and “Internet of Things ”(IoT)).

The company is listed on the continuous market of the Spanish Stock Exchange and is part of the selective IBEX35 and EuroStoxx 600. It is also part of the FTSE4GOOD, CDP (Carbon Dis-closure Project), Sustainalytics and “Standard Ethics” sustainability indices.

Cellnex has a Corporate Responsibility policy, which takes as reference international standards (such as the United Nations Global Compact) and which assumes the specific management framework of the SA8000. The company has an RC Master Plan in which it establishes the objectives, actions and monitoring indicators of the different defined sustainability areas. Each year, the company publishes its Integrated Annual Report, prepared according to the GRI standard and audited by an independent third party.

Acerca de United Way

En United Way creemos que toda empresa tiene la capacidad de generar un impacto positivo en su entorno más cercano. Para ello, identificamos necesidades a nivel local sobre tres áreas concretas: educación, seguridad financiera y salud. Unimos a las empresas con ONGs e Instituciones que trabajen sobre esas áreas. Desarrollamos proyectos de voluntariado corporativo a medida dando respuesta a las necesidades detectadas y medimos el impacto real creado en el entorno y sus beneficiarios.

Fundada en EEUU hace 132 años, United Way es la organización no lucrativa más grande del mundo en cuanto a fondos privados. Trabajamos por el bien común movilizando individuos, empresas y otras organizaciones para actuar y mejorar las condiciones de las comunidades alrededor del mundo. Movilizamos a más de 3mill. de voluntarios al año – con la implementación de programas de voluntariado corporativo – y estamos presentes en más de 40 países, a través de 1.800 delegaciones.

About EXIT Foundation

The mission of the EXIT Foundation is to reduce the early educational abandonment of young people in situations of social vulnerability through innovative and scalable training projects that shape an itinerary and provide added value to companies, enhance networking and promote job placement. Therefore, our vision is to ensure that young people in a situation of vulnerability are the centre of an ecosystem in which the business sector, the social sector and the public administration join efforts to co-design training itineraries that maximize their chances of employment.

Confidence in young people, equal opportunities, Innovation, professionalism, networking are our main values, as well as the construction of a bridge between business and social world, sustainability and diversity.

In its 19 years of history, 8,200 young people have participated in Spain in the Foundation’s projects, derived from 427 social and educational entities that are thus reinforced their training with the guidance and mentoring of the 4,220 corporate volunteers of the 750 companies that collaborate with Exit .

About ALWA

ALWA Emprendizaje Social is a socio-educational organization that promotes entrepreneurial culture through experiences of active, collaborative and experiential learning. Connect young people, adults and organizations to empower themselves based on challenges of leadership, impact and social responsibility.

About BERTELSMANN FOUNDATION

Under the motto ‘For youth employment’, the Bertelsmann Foundation has been working since 2014 for the development of projects that contribute to shorten the distances between the educational and business world and generate quality professional opportunities for young people by promoting the promotion of Professional Orientation and a Dual Professional Training of quality. In this second field, the Bertelsmann Foundation, together with the Princess of Girona Foundation, the CEOE and the Chamber of Commerce of Spain, promotes the Dual Vocational Training Alliance, a state network formed by more than 1,250 companies, centers and institutions involved with the development of Dual FP in Spain that brings together the best initiatives and experiences that are being carried out. www.fundacionbertelsmann.org