Giving children who grow up in an environment with a socio-economic disadvantage a better future, supported by the Deloitte Impact Foundation
Since 2016, the Deloitte Impact Foundation is proud to be an official partner of JINC. All Deloitte colleagues in The Netherlands are stimulated to engage in JINC’s projects to make a positive impact on the lives of children who grow up in neighbourhoods with more poverty. And many of them do! Read more about the experiences of Deloitte colleagues Saskia, Lisa, Mark, Eline, Jef, Dennis en Milou.
JINC strives for a society in which a child’s background does not determine a child’s future, a society in which every child gets a fair chance. To reach that goal, they help young people between 8 and 16 years of age to a good start in the labour market. Through the JINC programme they get acquainted with various professions, find out what kind of work suits their talents, and learn how to apply for a job. That is how every year JINC gives more than 65,000 children the opportunity to grow.
The need to support young children and offer them a future perspective is now bigger than ever. The COVID-19 pandemic shows even more how big the inequality of opportunities is among young people. JINC takes the RIVM measures into account when organizing its projects. Most projects can take place in class, with the physical or digital presence of a volunteer. Professionals can participate in a way that is possible for them: from home behind a screen or in the classroom at 1,5 meters distance.
Deloitte Impact Foundation colleague Eline Spaargaren coordinates Deloitte’s JINC activities. Eline: ‘Since 2016, we proudly call ourselves an official partner of JINC. Via the Deloitte Impact Foundation all Deloitte colleagues are enabled to participate in JINC’s projects to make an impact in society. It’s great to see how many of them do! Their experiences and stories inspire others, leading more colleagues who join JINC and - most importantly - a larger amount of kids impacted – in line with our WorldClass ambition to impact 50 Million futures by 2030.
Deloitte colleagues can apply for several of JINC’s projects in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven, where they can share their competences and expertise with the children who need it most. Read more about some of the projects and related experiences below.
What better way to inspire children to get the best out of themselves than by making them in charge for a day. JINC’s ‘Boss of Tomorrow’ programme annually offers this opportunity to hundreds of students from neighborhoods with a socio-economic disadvantage. On 23 January 2020, Stijn Bertram took over the position of CEO Hans Honig for one day.
Read more and view the videos of the years before.
Hans Honig: ‘I think the Boss of Tomorrow is a great programme because it is also about entrepreneurship. Our boss Stijn is already an entrepreneur himself and I really enjoy stimulating him in this process.’
The world around us is digitizing at a rapid pace and the IT sector offers many job opportunities. How do we make students aware of this in time? With Digital Skills, of course! This project introduces children to programming in a playful way.
Eline Saarloos, from Deloitte’s Financial Advisory practice: ‘Digitale Vaardigheden is great programme to get children familiar with programming in a playful way. It was really cool to hear all of the creative ideas the children came up with during the designing of their robots and algorithms. The session was filled with enthusiasm from the children, which made it an uplifting experience for me as well. I can recommend it to everyone and hope to do the session myself again this spring, in real life instead of videocall.
Even if you have many role models in your environment who stimulate you and think along with you, it is quite difficult to choose a further education. Let alone if you have to do it with less support. JINC helps them via Career Coaching.
Dennis van den Berg, from Deloitte’s Regulatory Risk team: ‘Last year I started as a Career Coach through the Deloitte Impact Foundation. This program consists out of individual coaching sessions with underprivileged students in Rotterdam. Next to helping the students making a choice for their further education, it also provides me with an honest view on society and helps me to grow as both a person and a coach. Luckily the coaching session continued this year, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, because it is precisely in these uncertain times that it can be very valuable to receive support.
Student Lisa talks about her coach: 'Finally there was someone who thought along with me and guided me well. He helped me think about what I wanted and what I liked. And that really helped me. I am so bad at making choices.'
If you don't know what is for sale, you cannot choose. This sounds logical, but for many young people this wisdom does not apply. They have to make a choice. Even if they have no idea what they can do or want to become. This choice is often extra difficult for children who grew up in a neighbourhood with a lot of poverty. They do not always have the right support or examples around them. During a Flash Internship, primary school and pre-vocational secondary education students discover which sectors and professions exist.
Lisa Brokking and Saskia Bastiaansen work at Deloitte’s Learning Department. Together with JINC, they organised a Flash Internship at a primary school in Rotterdam. Saskia: 'The Flash Internship is a good initiative where you can contribute to society. During this experience, you will look at your work within Deloitte with the students' perspective; this provides valuable insights. I personally liked to listen to the dreams and passions of the students where there was no lack of intrinsic motivation.'
Lisa: 'I would recommend to join a JINC project, like a Flash Internship. It is very valuable for the students and yourself, as you are reflecting your own work with a students' perspective. In addition, it is nice to do the Flash Internship with another colleague, so you can also connect with colleagues next the work projects.'
Children from socio-economically disadvantaged neighborhoods often lag behind with Dutch language skills - especially if they come from migrant families. JINC organizes Language Journeys to boost their vocabulary in a playful way.
Alexander Duijn, from Deloitte's Financial Advisory department, participated in a Language Journey at the airport: 'I experienced a special day with the children! It was nice to take them to the airport and see the amazement on their faces when I told them about the airplanes - something that seems so natural to me.'
Introduce yourself, make eye contact and ask questions. It's as simple as that, but you have to know this. During a Job Interview Training, young people learn how to impress a potential boss.
Mark van Schaijk, from Deloitte’s Tax department: ‘Together with other corporate Directors I talked to VMBO students of the ‘Bossche Vakschool’. The students prepared a resume and were given the opportunity to practice a job interview through role-play. These exercises gave the self-confidents of the students a huge boost and also the trainers – like myself – experienced the morning as fun, inspiring, surprising and educational. I believe, it is important to help these students, as many things are not self-evident for them. Especially children with a learning gap or a difficult situation at home deserve equal opportunities in life and can be helped by giving career guidance.
Some questions were very surprising, such as: 'Can I also put a photo with “Snapchat ears” on my resume? Does it matter what someone finds about you on the internet? Are you allowed to bring up your hobbies during a job interview? Is it rude to ask about the salary you are going to earn?’
Student Charlene about her Job Interview Training: 'When I visited companies to inquire about internships, I used things from the training. You have to dress neatly, because how you walk in determines, say, everything. And that also counts for the way in which you ask for an internship. You can't say "I want to do an internship here because I have to leave school". I learned all that from the training.'
Many VMBO students dream of running their own business, but they often think mainly about earning a lot of money and not about working days of twelve hours. With This is Entrepreneurship, JINC introduces them to practice.
Jef Holland, from Deloitte’s Audit & Assurance practice: ‘More than 28 years ago, I started at the same level as the students I taught during this project. Therefore, it gives me an extra amount of energy to see how the kids get excited about entrepreneurship, how the thinking process evolves during the weeks and how the mix of personalities always leads to a thorough business plan. As the plan should also include a goal which impacts society, the students’ creative thoughts were a real eye opener for me and my team. After all the hard work, they proudly presented their plans to the class and an entrepreneurial jury to decide which plan wins!’
In addition to the above projects which reach the children directly, the Deloitte Impact Foundation enables Deloitte colleagues to share their professional capabilities with organisations to help them professionalise or – in JINC’s case – scale, indirectly impacting more children. Deloitte’s Business Model Transformation team optimised JINC's business processes to enable growth. Furthermore, we helped develop a KPI dashboard to help make their impact more visible and we contribute to the further scaling of JINC.
Through the Deloitte Impact Foundation, Deloitte is committed to bring a positive impact to society. We share our core competences, knowledge and network in societal initiatives to make an impact in the fields of education & employment, sustainability and endurability. Read more about the Deloitte Impact Foundation and view our other initiatives.