PMI Belgium Chapter Helps the Unemployed

Jaak is a Board Member and Director of Academic and Educational Outreach for PMI Belgium.

  Career Development   Work Breakdown Structures (WBS)  

“The unemployed are lazy, they don’t want to work.” This is a stigma that many individuals face during a challenging time in their lives. In fact, it’s a message many of us have heard frequently. But who tries to help them to find a new job in the very demanding work environment? In Belgium, our PMI Belgium Chapter identified an opportunity to get involved and support these youth.

We (a group of six PMI volunteers) got the idea to help unemployed youth by providing them with an introduction to project management. We felt happy and fortunate to have interesting and fulfilling jobs as project managers, and we decided to share this experience with less fortunate youngsters as a valuable business and life skill.

In order to address this group, we identified an organization in Belgium that was already helping youth in transition called VDAB, a Flemish service for unemployed individuals. By partnering with VDAB, we had access to some of our basic needs, like meeting space and logistical support. While this organization is unique to Belgium, there are many organizations around the globe who serve unemployed individuals during periods of transitions.

The first training
I organized a pilot program in Leuven for 24 unemployed young people. The training was structured in three sessions that each lasted three hours. Each of the attendees was between the …

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