Citywise Impresses Dublin Office during BizAcademy

One of the focus areas of the Salesforce 1-1-1 Model is education. Remember last month when the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny came to our Dublin office, congratulating us on our education and workforce development programmes?

BizAcademy is one of those programmes; an initiative aimed at upskilling young people, giving them the confidence and knowledge required to enter the world of work. The programme gives participants access to training, workshops and challenges; like the Dragon’s Den event we hold in our Dublin office at the end of BizAcademy.

This year, we worked with a group of young people from Citywise Education, a Dublin based organisation that supports the learning and development of young people from what can stereotypically be described as disadvantaged area.

Last month 12 young people who had completed their final year in secondary school came to the Salesforce office to spend 5 days learning about business techniques, technology and professional skills. To pull all of this off we had to recruit some of our lovely Dublin employees, to act as organisers, mentors and facilitators of the programme.

Without them we wouldn’t be able to make this happen. But of course, they also get something out of it!

Here’s what two of this years mentors thought about the experience:

Martin O’Connor, Business Development Representative, Salesforce

“In my view, my participation was a means of exposing some very bright and talented teenagers to a world that can often be beyond reach at this moment in time. A prevailing theme from many, was that their impression of the corporate world was that it was solely profit oriented. Some of the participants expressed that their experience informed a renewed impression of a business environment and as such some were considering a path that had not been considered previously which has opened up more choice.

The Salesforce 1-1-1 model talks about giving back and how that is core to our D.N.A. Getting involved in the Salesforce BizAcademy in partnership with Citywise provides you with an opportunity not only to give back, but to help enable young people bubbling over with aspiration and ambition to succeed in the next phase of their life.”

Chloë Carton, Customer Intelligence Trainee, Salesforce

“For the entire week our team were focused, willing and driven to succeed. They all put an enormous amount of effort into their Dragon’s Den presentation – going so far as to make a website! When Friday finally came around, it was the mentors who were biting their nails with nerves, not the students! They were calm, cool and confident, which was obvious in their top-notch presentation. I was really thrilled that our team’s hard work and effort paid off as they won the competition with their business idea ‘C.O.N.E Academy’. Biz Academy is a great opportunity for students, as they experience the working world in one of the world’s most innovative companies – Salesforce. I was really proud that I was able to part of this initiative and would urge anyone who is given the opportunity to be a mentor, to do so. The effort you put in, is returned in buckets.”

Interested in learning more about BizAcademy? Check out some of our BizAcademy programmes happening around the world.