SITUATION/PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the company providing professional consulting services regards recruitment of new employees as a long-term process and a serious challenge. Because of that the company attaches a lot of importance to educating young people through various projects addressed to students.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION/SOLUTION:

Win an Internship
Win an Internship is the biggest competition in Poland in which students and graduates can win internship and gain their first professional experience. It has been organized in cooperation with Gazeta Wybrocza since 1996. Apart from internships and special trainings for 100 best students (high assessment of the submitted assignments) PwC provides trainings on how to understand the job market and how to build a career path. PwC also prepares companies to take care of the interns by running training session for the internships’ sponsors.
In order to level the chances of students from various regions of Poland, all internships offered in the competition are paid or they provide accommodation during the internship. The 10th Edition of the competition jointly financed 211 internship posts in companies, public administration units and non-governmental organizations. (This number is record high in the history of the competition).

League of Responsible Business
League is an educational program addressed to students of higher education which aims at spreading knowledge about responsible business among students and academics. At present, the League has a network of 12 academic units and student groups who group people interested in the idea of responsible business and would like to carry out this type of activity in their universities. This initiative groups approx. 2000 people – students, lecturers and academics as well as representatives of ngo's, local government, parliament, media and local business. The result of the annual work of the League is i.e. 11 conferences, 35 topical workshops, 2 surveys, 2 work groups in cooperation with companies and a countrywide competition with internships as rewards. Not only does the company finance the program, but also it is also co-responsible for creating its strategy. The company participates and encourages its employees to take part in all the events promoting the League during which it shares its expertise, experience and ideas.

The School of Leaders
The main objective of the Summer School is developing people who work for the benefit of the communities based on the needs of their local environment, work in the public interest, or promote civic rights and freedom and develop understanding of three sectors of the civic society. This project extends knowledge and abilities needed for people active in his field, and encourages for a more thorough reflexion on social problems and the role of the social and political activists. PwC take an active part in eth program. Not only does it finance scholarships for the chosen participants, but it also runs training sessions during which it shares its knowledge and experience. On daily basis, the company supports the strategic and operational activities of the School of Leaders.
The School of Leaders educated several hundred potential and prospective members of social and political elites, who at present work as chair people of associations, assistants to members of parliament or local representatives promoting in their circles ideas of democracy as work for the common good.

BENEFITS:

• Participation in the prestigious circle of companies supporting active approach among young people;
• Building positive image among the students, companies and ngo's in Poland as the employer and partner following the responsible business principles;
• Opportunity to reach to interesting and active students - company’s prospective employees;
• Maintaining partner relationships with current and potential clients (sponsors of internships);
• Promotion of the company in the media and Internet. 

CHALLENGES:

• Maintaining standards of individual treatment of each of the founders when the number of practices increases;
• Coordinating work of everybody involved in the work on the competition (people making and checking tasks, conducting talks, running workshops for potential participants, cooperating students supporting the competition at universities etc.);
• Ensuring that the competition develops confronted with competition in the segment of programs addressed to students.

WORTH REMEMBERING:

• To bring desired results programs for students require a lot of cooperation and participation of many departments and people and have to be included in the company's strategy;
• For big projects, it is advantageous to cooperate with organisations and students' movements that have knowledge about this environment and principles they are governed;