Bringing university education and the reality of the corporate world closer together is a trend that has been on the rise over the years, striving to enrich the academic curriculum with practical experiences in the labour market. Indeed, this is one of the main goals of the Leaders For a Day initiative, created by Junior Achievement Portugal (JAP), and which led 18-year-old Miguel Roque Martins to spend a day with Teresa Abecasis, Chief Operating Officer (COO) Commercial at Galp. “It was a highly enriching experience”, the first-year economics student at Nova SBE declared to Energiser.
As far as the Nova SBE student is concerned, Leaders For a Day “was an enriching experience”, guaranteeing that he “learned a lot”
The challenge launched by JAP to more than ten companies consisted of inviting university students to spend a working day with them, thereby enabling them “to understand what a corporate manager´s day entails”, explains Luís Aguiar. The president of the association believes that interaction between universities and organisations “is of paramount importance, as education in Portugal still isn´t very well connected to the corporate world”. This form of mentoring provides students with access to the corridors in which major strategic business decisions are made, putting the theoretical content taught at universities into practice. “This has a major impact on students”, emphasises Luís Aguiar.
Miguel Roque Martins is sitting the first year of an Economics degree at Nova SBE, a course which provided him with the opportunity to participate in the Leaders For a Day initiative. “I knew it was going to be good and I accepted straight away”, he confesses in an enthusiastic voice. The day was spent with Teresa Abecasis at Galp's headquarters, where the 18-year-old student learned about the energy business in detail and discovered how an executive committee works. “We had a number of interesting meetings with people working in the commercial area and then I had lunch with Teresa, which was great due to the experiences we exchanged. I really learned a lot,” he says.
Teresa Abecasis highlighted the role of volunteers at Galp and is of the opinion that the initiative promoted by JAP “has reinforced the value inherent to giving these younger generations a voice”
However, while all this is of enormous value to the students, the president of JAP is in no doubt that corporate leaders also benefit from these meetings. “This is a clash of generations and the interesting thing is that all these kids have different ideas about life, different technical knowledge. It's a sort of reverse mentoring”, argues Luís Aguiar. Teresa Abecasis agrees and guarantees it “was a highly enriching experience” that enabled us to understand “how Miguel views both Galp and the world, and to gain an insight into the perspective of a young person with regard to the energy transition process to which Galp is committed”.
“This generation represents the future of Galp, either as employees, consumers or stakeholders”, adds the Commercial COO. The member of the executive committee admits she was “surprised” by how proactive Miguel Roque Martins was throughout the day and believes that this initiative “has reinforced the value inherent to giving these younger generations a voice”.
The president of Junior Achievement Portugal highlights the importance of initiatives such as Leaders For a Day, both for students and for corporate leaders
Galp´s participation in Leaders For a Day is yet another in the long line of projects the energy corporation has striven to implement with the community, more specifically through volunteer work, which “has increased significantly at the company in the last few months”. Every employee is given 48 hours a year to dedicate to solidarity initiatives, and Teresa Abecasis says that this involvement with society enables us to achieve two simultaneous goals. On the one hand, contributing to the common good and, on the other, “reinforcing team spirit and people's motivation”. “Volunteer time off doesn’t cut into working time, it actually enhances our work”, she guarantees.