A job finding initiative in Murcia takes clues from the sports world

Teamwork in search of work

Looking for a job is often hard and on top of it, it can be a lonely and demotivating experience. The solution, in the opinion of the Murcian Region’s Ministry of Employment, is to team up and work collectively on the task.

The regional government’s website presented a new initiative called ‘100x100 Activación’ (which translates to 100% Activation in English). Its first phase was launched in the municipalities of Cehegín, Cieza and San Pedro del Pinatar today and it will aim to help 3 teams (composed of 20 people each) from these towns find a job for each of their members within 100 days.

This will be tried out in 9 different municipalities

The website of the Murcian Government also reported that each team will be under the guidance of a mentor or a ‘coach’ thus making allusions to a certain sport sensibility that will be inherent to the initiative. And like any sport, the goal is to win – in this case the gain of employment.

The initiative’s name implies the fact that participants should give 100% of their effort to help not only themselves but also their team partners. The coach will be there to provide mentorship, evaluation of the candidate’s skills and guidance in the job-seeking process.

The teams will be quite heterogeneous, consisting of people from different ages, backgrounds and qualification in order to provide even accessibility but also a larger array of experiences and points of view.

“One of the great successes of '100x100 Activation' is bringing together a great diversity of profiles, ranging from young people with little or no experience, even long-term unemployed since it is what makes it possible to enrich the group, while improving individual capacities and abilities to face the challenge of looking for work,” stated Miguel Motas, regional Minister of Employment.

Still, group sessions will also be combined with individual ones so that each person can get recommendations fitting his particular profile.

The plan is to have two more waves of this initiative, each covering three new municipalities in Murcia and a total of 180 participants who will get the chance to find a new job and hopefully make new friends in the process.