
Advanced Course in Innovation and Leadership
A next-generation acceleration program for aspirational men and women with refugee and migrant backgrounds to access meaningful employment in the corporate sector and accelerate its evolution.

Advanced Course in Innovation
and Leadership
A next-generation acceleration program for aspirational men and women with refugee and migrant backgrounds to access meaningful employment in the corporate sector and accelerate its evolution.
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To unlock the potential of newcomer talent for our societies, PLACE hosts Fast Forward, a certified fellowship program for newcomers to acquire the skills needed for tomorrow – today. The fellowship will grant men and women of diverse background access to the Advanced Course in Innovation and Leadership, essential to their professional development in the corporate sector.



Fast Forward has been designed to enable men and women with refugee and migrant backgrounds to acquire the skills they need for the jobs of the future.
During this 8-month program, through next-generation learning techniques and project-based experience, 25 participants 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 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 of Europe.
The program is compatible with candidates who have full time commitments.
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

Opportunities to lead empowerment workshops for women in their close circles

Self-driven learning in English and French supported by leading ed-tech platforms
The 8-month 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 innovation project managers for companies and organizations.
As part of the full program experience, we encourage participants to propose and lead professional empowerment workshops for 5 other newcomers that they know..
Building on the Certificate in Innovation and Technology Management (CITM) developed with Ecole des Ponts Business School and L’Oréal in 2020, this Advanced Course in Leadership and Innovation aims to foster gender equality and diversity in the corporate world. The program is supported by past fellowship holders who have been further trained for facilitation on a training-of-trainers model, to promote 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 newcomers in Europe to take on meaningful roles in the corporate sector. Does this sound like you?
Apply here to become a Fast Forward coach!
Why do we need FastForward?
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%, 62% for refugee men while it is 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 profiles with refugees or migrant backgrounds to develop highly employable skills.
