In Expresso, 21 June 2014
Text: Maribela Freitas
Photo: Mário João/Expresso
Multinational recruitment agency Randstad and the Portuguese Institute of Employment and Training (IEFP) entered 13 teams of unemployed people into the challenge, in an unprecedented action. Unemployed graduates registered with IEFP were invited to form teams for the Global Management Challenge. For the members of these teams this was an experience that allowed them to embrace new challenges and increase the possibility of returning to the job market. “This investment gives us the opportunity to face a new and professional challenge, although in a simulated scenario. It also shows our interest in learning, our readiness to develop contacts, and our desire to be involved in new projects” explains Jorge Matos, leader of the Randstad/IEFP4Game team, made up of five elements with qualifications in psychology, public relations and management, and aged between 40 and 46. Another aspect they value is the ability to meet and exchange experiences with other people. “It’s a tool that helps us to maintain a strong connection with the professional world”, says Jorge Matos.
Acquiring new knowledge
Paulo Sousa, leader of the five-member Randstad/IEFP/E3JP team with backgrounds in engineering and management, and aged between 34 and 52, believes that this challenge is a learning experience. “The Global Management Challenge allows us to embrace a unique challenge, to acquire and strengthen management skills, taking the opportunity to showcase ourselves, increase our visibility and earn the chance to return to the job market with new knowledge”. He believes that his team, through its performance, can prove that experience and maturity are important in business success, and that acquired knowledge makes overcoming daily obstacles in organizations easier. “The results that we hope to achieve in the challenge show that we have skills that can make a difference when choosing candidates for new projects,” concludes Paulo Sousa.
Curricular asset
For Catarina Horta, head of corporate social responsibility at Randstad Portugal, participation in the Global Management Challenge is an asset on any curriculum vitae. “As a staffing firm we encourage job seekers to remain active and enhance their resumes during transitional phases,” she says. In the perspective of anyone who is looking for work this is a challenge that requires time and dedication, and yet one that represents training in technical and behavioural skills.
Jorge Gaspar, president of the governing council of IEFP, has no doubt that through this partnership with Randstad Portugal “we are taking another step, among many, in the national effort to respond to what I think is unanimously recognized as the major social problem in this country: unemployment”. He went on to add that associating knowledge with practice and experience is one of the most effective ways of developing and improving individual skills and, in this way, improving prospect for reintegration and a professional career
