Advanced Course in Innovation and Leadership
A next-generation acceleration program for aspirational women with refugee and migrant backgrounds to access meaningful livelihood in the business sector, both through corporate employment and entrepreneurship
Advanced Course in Innovation
and Leadership
A next-generation acceleration program for aspirational women with refugee and migrant backgrounds to access meaningful livelihood in the business sector, both through corporate employment and entrepreneurship
To unlock the potential of newcomer female talent for our societies, PLACE offers Fast Forward, a program certified by École des Ponts Business School and corporate partners including L’Oréal and Ben&Jerry’s, for newcomer women to acquire the skills needed for tomorrow – today. The program will grant women of diverse background access to the Advanced Course in Innovation and Leadership, essential to their professional development in the corporate sector, and to acquire the necessary skills to make a B2B business flourish, or a project within a company as an intrapreneur.
Fast Forward has been designed to enable women with refugee and migrant backgrounds to acquire the skills they need for the jobs of the future.
From June to December 2022, through next-generation learning techniques and project-based experience, 30 women of diverse backgrounds will be selected to bring their unique experience and capacity to the next level. The key purpose is to equip them with a new set of leadership and entrepreneurial skills to access meaningful careers. We believe that their resilience, aspirations, skills and unique insights are all powerful drivers to the evolving workforce and growing requirement of Diversity & Inclusion culture in the corporate sector and among new businesses in Europe.
The program is 100% online and compatible with candidates who have full-time commitments and are based in all regions of France.
The fellowship includes:
Professional challenges with expert feedback
Production of a professional portfolio relevant to the corporate sector
Next-generation mentoring based on
goal-setting and a personal coach
Immersion in strategic events with leaders in the sector
Self-driven learning in English and French supported by leading ed-tech platforms
Opportunities to lead empowerment workshops for women in their close circles
The fellowship focuses on key transferable skills that will equip participants to bring tangible value to the new workplaces they will contribute and become value-generating intrapreneurs or innovation project managers for companies and organizations. These skills, allied with the entrepreneurial training proposed, will also enhance the potential for businesses they may create to be more relevant towards clients and partners in the business sector (B2B), as well as prepare them to become successful intrapreneurs.
As part of the full program experience, we encourage participants to propose and lead professional empowerment workshops for 5 other women that they know.
The Fast Forward program builds on the Certificate in Innovation and Technology Management (CITM) developed with Ecole des Ponts Business School and L’Oréal in 2020, on the 2021 edition of the Advanced Course in Leadership and Innovation, and on Ice Academy, the entrepreneurial training delivered in France by PLACE since 2019.
The Fast Forward program aims to foster gender equality and diversity in the corporate world. The program is migrant-led: it is supported by past fellowship holders who have been further trained for facilitation on a training-of-trainers model, to promote female migrant leadership and professional development.
Apply to take part in Fast Forward!
Are you ready to showcase your leadership skills?
Are you ready to thrive in the future of work – today?
Apply today – tell us where you want to go and how Fast Forward can help you get there.
Become a coach for newcomer talent!
We are looking for experts from around the globe to coach migrants and refugees in Europe to take on meaningful roles in the corporate sector. Does this sound like you?
Apply here to become a coach for newcomer talent!
Why create Fast Forward?
We need to provide a solution for the underemployment and misemployment of women with refugee and migrant backgrounds:
The employment rate for refugee women is on average 45%, compared to 62% for refugee men and 51% for other non-EU born women.
At the same time, when refugees find employment, almost 60% of employed tertiary-educated refugees in the EU are overqualified for the jobs they occupy, more than twice the level of the native-born and also well above the levels for other migrant groups.
Their inclusion in the workforce is also a
game-changer for the corporate sector:
racially and ethnically diverse companies outperform industry norms by 35%
inclusive organizations are
1.7 times more likely to be innovation leaders in their market
organizations with diverse teams are 158% more likely to better design solutions for diverse groups
Join the movement to unlock newcomer talent with Fast Forward!
Does your company believe in the value of investing in diverse talent to build more resilient economies? Contact us and let’s see how together, we can enable high-potential women with refugees or migrant backgrounds to develop highly employable skills.
