Nous Cims, at its annual meeting of grant holders, presented the new Zing Programme, a project arising from the foundation’s grant programme, whose objective is to transform the lives of the young participants by facilitating their access to educational pathways. The new Zing Programme brings together all the talent and vocational activation methodology, impact training and individual support for these youths under a single initiative created by the Employability Area of the Nous Cims Foundation.

From 2013 up to the 2018/19 academic year, a total of 758 students – youths who were referred by social entities and were in a situation of economic or social vulnerability – benefited from the various annual calls to apply for Nous Cims grants.

The Zing Programme starts its journey by expanding the scope of the initiative, consequently benefiting 600 young people of Catalonia and Spain in this 2019/20 academic year. They are all sufficiently motivated and are highly committed to continuing with their studies and receiving training as professionals.

Why the Zing Programme?

The Zing concept gets its name from and is inspired by Tenzing Norgay, the sherpa who accompanied mountain climber Edmund Hilary to reach the summit of Everest for the first time in history.

According to Miquel Antonijuan, the director of both the programme and the Employability Area of Nous Cims: “once these young people have reached their summit, we’d like them to stay with us. Through social return, we want them to help other boys and girls in the same process, so that they can also fulfil their educational and professional dreams”.

All participants in the Zing Programme follow a training pathway. This includes discovering their vocation (Zing Vocation) and a call to apply for high-impact educational grants for vocational training and university education, in addition to individual support until labour insertion. A pilot project for students from secondary schools, called Zing High Schools, is also being tested, which includes mentoring as one of the cornerstones of the programme.

The first Zingday, at the CCIB

The majority of young people who have become ‘zingers’ during this academic year, meaning beneficiaries of the programme and members of the Zing Network, participated in the first Zingday. Specifically, over 100 social entities from Catalonia and Spain, together with schools, high schools and other key players in the social sector, are working to turn the Zing Programme into a solid, high-impact model, one of empowerment for young people.

Zingday benefited from the special collaboration of the Barcelona International Convention Centre, which offered it the use of the CCIB Forum Auditorium in order to make this encounter a reality.