Our context Each year, 5 million students and graduates do an internship in Europe to bridge the skills gap between education and work. The problem is that too many internships have a poor learning content and thus thwart youth’s first steps in the labor market.
What we are doing We are building a European job portal aiming at easing the education-to-work transition. InternsGoPro’s social mission is Co-organizer of the Sandwich Protest - Brussels to boost young people’s employability and mobility by giving July 2013 employers new incentives to offer quality internships throughout Europe. Concretely, we will assess the quality of internship offers and give visibility to employers committing to offer good training & remuneration through a “European label for quality internships”. Interns will be able to publicly rate their internships online to create transparency and make sure the label is applied.
Our innovation InternsGoPro’s innovation lies in the combination of the label and peer-to-peer internship ratings as they answer both employers and young people’s needs. Indeed, students and graduates badly need a tool to assess the quality of internships and identify the right employers offering valuable skills/training. At the same time, employers want to attract young talents. The label works as a reward Nominated for the “European Young Innovator of the Year mechanism, giving visibility to good employers; and 2013” award internship ratings as a constantly updated feedback mechanism creating transparency and trust for young people.
Our theory of change Our theory of change is based on the idea of creating new incentives for employers to offer quality internships.
Winner of the 2013 Microsoft Boostcamp – Brussels Capital Region Prize
By making it interesting for employers willing to attract talents, and costly in terms of reputation for the uncaring ones, we aim at launching a European movement to help young people acquire the skills they need and contribute to reduce youth unemployment. In the first half of 2014, we will conduct advocacy activities and workshops in 8 European countries to create a network of like-minded youth organizations.