Escola Escritório Programme (“Office School Programme”)

Objective

To prepare disadvantaged youth for the labour market through training, coaching and mentoring to allow for social inclusion.

Overview and Main Activities

In partnership with the Brazilian non-governmental organization Quixote, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) contracts 10 final-year high-school students who fit the risk profile (e.g. exposure to violence, drug and alcohol abuse, conflict with the law) to take part in a training programme. The programme is designed to prepare students for the job market by helping them to improve their attitude towards education, strengthen their communication skills, display greater commitment to obligations and begin visualizing a different future. After successful completion of the training programme, participants have the opportunity to apply for a full-time position at PwC Brazil.

The training programme rests on four key pillars:

1. Training and coaching to support the students: The training programme lasts at least six months. The main focus is on personal relationships, behaviour in the corporate environment and oral expression. The training is combined with one-on-one supervising by a PwC employee and is complemented with group coaching sessions to address difficulties and uncertainties that the participant may face during the training. During the entire programme, students’ school grades and attendance are monitored bimonthly to identify tendencies that need to be corrected.
2. Informing and preparing supervisors: PwC employees who act as student supervisors receive support from Quixote professionals; they have individual meetings to discuss the handling, performance, difficulties and potential of the participants.
3. Mentoring the families: Family members are mentored on the topics of income management, proper attire, discipline and commitment to education. The mentoring with relatives occurs quarterly or on demand as needed and is performed by Quixote professionals.
4. Psychosocial monitoring: The students participate in periodic group therapy sessions, during which they discuss their difficulties and what they have learned in the areas where they work. Quixote and PwC professionals are responsible for supervising the students.

The success rate of students receiving a full-time position with PwC Brazil after completing the programme is around 50%.

Additional programme partners include the Federal University of São Paulo.

Success Factors and Challenges

Most critical success factors:

• The discovery by PwC employees involved in the programme of their own social role as educators and collaborators
• Partner brand/reputation

Main challenges:

• The students and their families’ circumstances in social risk conditions, making effective social, cultural and economic inclusion challenging

Replicability and Scalability

How easily could other organizations implement this initiative?
Easy: The methodology has been refined since the programme’s implementation over 10 years ago.

How easily can this initiative be expanded to include a larger number of participants?
Difficult It is difficult to provide robust support to prepare young people with risk profiles to interact in a corporate environment, with basic skills and appropriate behaviour and, even more importantly, including psychosocial aspects.

About the Organization

Website: www.pwc.com
Sector: Professional Services
Size (number of employees): 100,000+
Headquarters: London, United Kingdom

For Further Engagement

Contact name: Fernanda Pacheco
Contact position: CR Director
Email: [email protected]

Contact name: Tatiana Lima
Contact position: CSR Analyst
Email: [email protected]