Universiteit van Amsterdam
Team leader
Julia Dorigo
Board Members
- Julia Dorigo (Chairman)
- Jitser Berger (Treasurer)
- Arthur Lieveld (Secretary & Communication)
- Floor Steinweg (PR & Recruitment)
- Alexander Gerritse (Project manager & National Competition)
- Ewout Urbach (Project manager & National Competition)
University Advisor
- Dr. S.T. Mol
- Mr. S.M. Hoogendoorn M.Sc.
- Dhr. M. Keestra
- Mw. Zaal
Website:
Contact info
| Address: | Roetersstraat 11 |
| 1018 WB | |
| Place: | Amsterdam |
| Phone no.: | |
| Email: | info@sife-uva.nl |
Mission: To create sustainable futures by creating direct economic opportunities in Amsterdam and the world.
Competition History
- SIFE UvA was founded on the 1st of September 2006. Since then we have participated three times in the National Competition (2007, 2008, 2009).
- We immediately won the Spirit of SIFE Award in our first year of competition in 2007.
- Last year, in 2009, we made our way to the finals and eventually came in third.
Project FietsForce
The project Fietsforce was set up last year and focuses on the homeless youngsters in Amsterdam. There are 6000 homeless youngsters in the Netherlands and 1000 are located in Amsterdam.
These youngsters face multiple problems, such as lack of financial literacy and social success skills. This makes it hard for them to apply for a job.
SIFE UvA set up the project Fietsforce to increase the chances in the society for homeless youngsters. Fietsforce aims to increase their independence by transferring knowledge and to ensure the youngsters build competences to compete on the local market.
Fietsforce is a mobile bicycle repair service in the center of Amsterdam. It creates a direct economic opportunity, which benefits homeless youngsters as well as the city. Fietsforce provides a working and learning environment for the youngsters and contributes in the guidance and education for the youngsters to execute the bicycle repair service.
In collaboration with our partners Fietsforce aims to become a certified learning-and-working company and eventually guarantee participants of the programme a job!
Project Young & Entrepreneurial
Another continuous project of SIFE UVA is Young & Entrepreneurial. This project focuses on local entrepreneurship in Amsterdam. Last year, this project was about stimulating entrepreneurship amongst university students. This project proved to be self-supporting; therefore SIFE UvA decided to shift the focus towards the lower educated youth in society.
The new focus of Young & Entrepreneurial project has come to life out of the need of MBO students to help them become entrepreneur and to stimulate the students to go on with an education on a higher level.
At this moment around 60% of those lower educated youth called ‘MBO students’ go to a higher educational level. SIFE UVA wants to contribute by focusing on competencies of the students and facilitate a better flow to higher education.
In cooperation with ROC Hilversum, which is a MBO school, SIFE UVA arranged several practical activities to the minor entrepreneurship. With the purpose of showing students how to operate in a market-based economy, organizing field trips is one of the activities of SIFE UVA. To acquire the business and social skills needed to compete successfully in a market, SIFE UVA arranged presentation trainings, financial literacy workshops and teaches them how to conduct an effective elevator pitch.
Members of SIFE UVA function as a coach for the students and help guide the teams to succeed as an entrepreneur. The students all set up a mini- enterprise for a period of 6 months in teams of 4. SIFE UVA organized a competition at the end of the minor Entrepreneurship where the students present their mini enterprises for a jury existing of entrepreneurs that come from the same educational background as these youngsters to give them a positive role model to aspire to!
About the team
We currently have four ongoing projects:
- Project Gambia: Building Tomorrow Today!
- Project JumpStart.
- Project FietsForce.
- Project Young & Entrepreneurial.
Project Gambia: Building Tomorrow Today!
The Gambia is a poor country, ranked 168th on the most recent Human Development Index. Even though tourism is a booming business in the Gambia, students of the ‘Institute of Travel and Tourism Of The Gambia’ (ITTOG) find it hard to make a living in the tourism sector. There are simply not enough jobs to go around and foreign companies largely dominate the tourism sector. A great alternative for these students would be starting their own enterprise! However in many cases students lack the knowledge and skills to do so. Hence the aim of this project is to improve students’ entrepreneurial knowledge and skills.
In the previous years SIFE-UvA developed in close cooperation with the ITTOG a curriculum of six courses that covers the SIFE-criteria; financial literacy, entrepreneurial skills, success skills, business ethics and sustainability. This year SIFE-UvA developed a minor entrepreneurship covering the same SIFE-criteria but enabling more cohesion between the modules.
Due to close consultation between the teachers, the professors of the University of Amsterdam and SIFE-UvA the minor is constructed this way that the teachers can teach the minor themselves. The difference with previous year is that by incorporating a business plan aspect in the minor, this projects complements the theoretical foundation of the minor with more practical insight.
In summary, the theoretical foundations of the minor together with the more practical aspects of writing and developing their own business plan will enable the students to create economic opportunities for themselves and Build Tomorrow Today!
Project JumpStart
There are currently 167.000 people in the Netherlands that receive social security benefits through what is called the Wajong-programme. Of those 167.000 people, 6.000 live in Amsterdam. Participants in this programme are long-term unemployed people between the age of 17 and 65 years, who have a physical or mental handicap which make them virtually incapable of working or make it difficult for them to find a suitable job. Most Wajong-ers are in fact perfectly capable of working, but being a participant in the Wajong-programme or ‘Wajonger’ means being stigmatised for life. Prejudices among employers about the complications of employing Wajong-ers make it hard for them to get a job and gain work experience. The lack of work experience in turn makes it even harder to find a job. Wajong-ers are thus in a vicious cycle.
SIFE UVA aims to help Wajong-ers to participate in the job market and try to prevent them from becoming socially isolated. Furthermore, SIFE UVA want to erase the stigma about the difficulties of employing these people. In short we want to JumpStart their lives!
Project JumpStart will provide Wajong-ers the opportunity to grow into their own business. The Wajong-ers will be trained to go out and sell coffee at key locations in Amsterdam in a small Italian coffee-moped. The Wajong-ers gain entrepreneurial skills to continue a business on their own.
Wajong-ers will be selected with help from a reintegration company and we will provide the Wajong-ers with training and coaching during the project to enhance social success skills and business ethics.
They will gradually learn how to take care of their own business, finances and how to work independently, thus empowering themselves and JumpStarting their own lives!
Team Photos:
SIFE UvA Gambia 2009-2010 v.l.n.r.:
Kim Broersen, Merel de Man, Emmy de Wit & Anouk van Brouwershaven.
SIFE UvA Jong & Ondernemend 2009-2010 v.l.n.r.:
Dionne Ewen, Kim Krauwel, Joost Pijl, Lisette Schwarz.
SIFE UvA FietsForce 2009-2010 v.l.n.r.:
Barbara Westerveld, Ewout Urbach, Felix Lomans, Roos Bernelot Moens, Amy Keverling Buisman, Rebekka ‘Moessa’ Tselms, Faisa Abbas
SIFE UvA Coffee Career 2009-2010 v.l.n.r.:
Joyce van Heijningen, Kirsten van Balen, Roel
Sprangers, Hans van den Berg, Yvette Pruszner & Leonard Smit.
