HP Portugal social investment work focuses on partner collaboration to achieve success

HP Portugal’s Philanthropy Team can look back on a successful and eventful year. Two Portuguese universities were awarded a Technology for Teaching grant this year and when HP helped to launch Junior Achievement Portugal, the Portuguese branch of Junior Achievement, the President of the Republic attended.

We spoke to Carlos Janicas (see image), managing director HP Portugal and lead for HP’s Technology Solutions Group in Portugal to learn more about HP Portugal’s social investment initiatives for which the team received an internal Excellence Award.

Q. What do you aim to achieve through your social investment in Portugal?

CJ. In line with HP’s overall strategy, much of our social investment activities focus on enhancing education and work-related skills with IT.

To achieve this we work with primary and secondary schools, universities and hand-picked non-profit organisations that share our goals. This year, we provided Mobile Classroom modules in two schools in Pampilhosa da Serra, Coimbra and Oeiras, Lisbon.

The Mobile Classroom bundles support the teaching of science and maths. This year, pupils participated in a project that allowed them to use laptops to explore the use of sensors in taking regular measurement data.

We think it’s very important that teachers have the right support to get maximum benefit from using HP Mobile Classroom equipment in schools. That’s why we also work with the national council of teachers in Portugal where we are seeing a lot of support for our approach.

We also work with universities to explore ways to support teaching and research of science and engineering subjects. This year, the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon and the Universidade do Minho in Braga are among the grant recipients of HP’s Technology for Teaching programme for universities.

I am particularly proud of this result as it demonstrates that Portugal’s universities are competitive at an international level and are innovative in their approach to research and teaching.

Q. Who are the local partners HP Portugal works with?

CJ. We feel it is very important that our social investment programmes create a long-term impact, that’s why working closely with partners is integral to our social investment strategy. Our partners are essential in helping us to generate a sustainable project which over time is increasingly self-sufficient by building its capabilities and by forming multiple relationships with corporate and government sponsors.

To achieve this, we work with some established charities and non-profit organisations, like the Aga Khan Foundation and the Foundation for the development of IT.

We are also one of the founding members of the Portuguese branch of Junior Achievement (JA) , a global education organisation that focuses on teaching school children, college and university students business skills.

Q. Can you tell us more about your involvement with Junior Achievement?

CJ. As a company, we have a global relationship with Junior Achievement (JA), and are one of a few corporate sponsors in the EMEA region. We find that the focus of JA is perfectly aligned to our capabilities.

We have also found that what we are doing with JA resonates very strongly with the government, and its priorities for education, which is considered a crucial component in securing Portugal’s competitiveness and ability to continue to compete in the global economy. As a result, the launch of JA Portugal received recognition at very senior government level, with Jorge Sampaio, President of the Portuguese Republic at that time, attending the launch event.

HP is one of six founding members of JA Portugal. As a founding member, we are closely involved with JA, and thanks to the commitment of the JA executive team, led by MD Joana Loureiro, and the support from all the founding members, including companies like Accenture, Citigroup, General Electric and Microsoft, the organisation has seen phenomenal growth over the first 12-18 months.

We have already reached 14,000 students through the JA programmes and training courses and are aiming to reach 20,000 young people in 2008.

As part of our partnership, HP employees can spend up to 6 hours teaching a business skills module in schools during work hours. We are also receiving young people participating in JA for work placements, project work or job shadowing at our HP offices and are encouraging other companies and organisations in Portugal to do the same.

Winter 2007/2008 issue

Global Citizenship Reports 2006

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