Amsterdam, The Netherlands and London, United Kingdom. 9th May 2023: JINC, the largest social mobility-focused charity in The Netherlands, today announces that it has partnered with The Hg Foundation, a grant-giving charity with a focus on removing barriers to education & skills in technology, for a two-year technology-focused programme targeted at students in vocational and pre-vocational schools.

Founded in 2003, JINC works collectively with schools and employers to improve students’ social skills and provide career guidance, boosting prospects for young people from socioeconomic disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Young individuals that grow up in an environment with poverty are often missing role models and guidance when it comes to their education and future work. This hinders their ability to make good choices for their future. In impoverished neighbourhoods in the Netherlands, we see higher levels of under-advisement, higher school dropout rates, and unemployment levels that are two to three times higher than the national average. This translates into a disconnection from the labour market that JINC and The Hg Foundation can help improve through this partnership.

In 2022 JINC supported 78,000 students across 533 schools through the support of 2,125 companies. JINC’s current programmes mainly focus on ages between 8 and 16 years old. The partnership from The Hg Foundation – totalling €600,000 - will enable an expansion to this offering. It will focus on young people in vocational and pre-vocational school, typically 16 years and over, with initiatives such as flash internships and career coaching. This will initially open up JINC’s programmes to around 1,500 additional students, across up to four cities in the Netherlands.

The Hg Foundation was formed in 2020 and is backed by Hg, a leading investor in European and transatlantic software and services businesses. The Hg Foundation will also aim to provide access and participation for internships and coaching across several businesses in the Benelux region, all backed by Hg.

The effectiveness of the programme will be assessed by tracking a variety of education and career outcomes such as students’ education and employment destinations at the end of the programme.

Daniël Roos, founder and director at JINC, said: “This partnership is really important as it means we can put even more focus on to that critical ‘entry level’ age group of 16 years and over, where people are making big decisions about their life and career.”

Joris Van Gool and Jos Gritter, Investors at Hg, said: “JINC’s initiatives align well with The Hg Foundation’s priority to support entry level talent into the tech sector, offering a win-win programme for students and tech companies looking to source new talent. As with all our partnerships, we look to track and assess the effectiveness of our support, with scope to scale the programme in the future.”

About JINC:

JINC helps young people aged 8 to 16 on their way to a better start on the labour market, through professional orientation in the workplace, learning (social) skills and workshops on entrepreneurship. JINC believes that every child deserves a fair chance, even if they grow up in an environment with fewer examples and role models to lean on.

JINC is a non-profit organization. More than 688 companies contribute (financially) to make the organization of the projects possible and make their employees available as volunteers, for example as trainers or coaches. Every year JNC reaches almost 78,000 primary, practical and pre-vocational students from Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, The Hague, Kennemerland, Brabant, Flevoland and Leeuwarden. More than 200 people work at JINC nationwide. For more information, please visit: https://www.jinc.nl/

About The Hg Foundation:

The Hg Foundation’s vision is that the tech workforce of the future harnesses the talents of all, regardless of background.  It does this by supporting education and employment-based programmes across the UK, USA and Europe where it can demonstrate measurable, long-term and scalable impact and make a difference to those that need it most.  To date it has committed $14m to programmes that will reach 10,000 young people and adults from under-represented backgrounds. The Hg Foundation is registered Charity no. 1189216. Find out more at https://www.thehgfoundation.com/