The current edition of the Mentoring Project that the Carmen Pardo Valcarce Foundation has launched with the Escuela Europea de Coaching has said goodbye with the celebration of a final event in which the successes achieved were reported and where its protagonists shone: the 66 couples formed by young people with intellectual disabilities, Campvs students, and the company professionals who have voluntarily acted as their mentors.
For the development of this mentoring programme, the Foundation has had the professional support of the Escuela Europea de Coaching, which has been in charge of training and supporting the volunteers in their role as mentors through training in necessary skills such as the ability to listen, to give feedback, to promote excellence and, above all, to develop confidence.
They highlight the achievements made, more than 390 meetings, 66 mentoring processes completedThe active participation of the mentors in the group tutorials and the support of 14 companies that have promoted the project in their organisations as corporate volunteering.
"The objective of bringing these young people into the world of work has been a success."Maria Orts, director of Campus, the training programme in which the young people are immersed, explained that "the mentoring has allowed the young people to come into contact with professionals who can talk to them about their jobs, their companies and help them to focus on their professional future". In the words of the Campvs tutors, "the impact that mentoring has had on the lives of young people whose experiences, until now, were very limited and whose contact with companies was non-existent, has been very positive. The mentors have put a face, voice and body to the company.".
The students have visited a company for the first time, rehearsed job interviews, practised how to deal with money or the metro map, and developed values such as "self-esteem", "autonomy", and "self-improvement". All of this has been guided by their mentors. The mentors, for their part, declare that they have learned that "the key is the relationship of trust"The main objectives of the project are: "to listen actively and empathetically", "to change the tempo to match the tempo of the other" and "to rescue skills of connecting with people".
"This is a real project, with real people and, as you can see, with real results."said the HR and CSR representatives of the companies that collaborate with the Carmen Pardo Valcace Foundation in this programme. For Alicia Morales, coach and trainer at the EEC, who has accompanied the mentors throughout the process, the success lies in "having initiated a path of changes that we see now and will continue to occur in the future".
The project has been made possible thanks to the support of companies that have promoted the project as corporate volunteering within their organisations. Among the companies collaborating with the Carmen Pardo-Valcarce Foundation are LVMH Perfumes & Cosmetics, AON, Fundación Mahou-San Miguel, Banco Popular and Fundación Vodafone España. The programme has the academic support of IE Business School, the technological collaboration of Fundación Accenture, MDTEL and IBM, and the support of the companies Globalvia, Indra, Colt Technology, Grupo Vips, Leroy Merlin, Cisco, Bankinter, Ecoembes and CBRE.
