The British firm Startup Sherpas has landed in Barcelona with the aim of instilling entrepreneurial and hard-working culture in the city’s teenagers.
The initiative is led by Natalia Olson, who was innovation advisor to former United States President Barack Obama. “In many European countries, teenagers do not have a business vocation and we think that the best way to achieve this is by facilitating their presence in companies in the territory,” she says.
With this purpose, Startup Sherpas opens its doors this week at the Pier01 facilities of the Tech Barcelona association. The team is made up of three people but will increase as their activity grows. The initiative has the express support of the Barcelona city council: “we know that each sector of our economy needs the best talent and we know that young people need to know about job opportunities to create startups and have a vibrant career in Barcelona,” says the mayor, Jaume Collboni.
The goal of Startup Sherpas is to ensure that this year, a total of 5,000 adolescents from 12 to 18 years old complete an internship in a large company in Barcelona. The program lasts 6 to 8 weeks and takes place during the summer season or during the afternoons of the school season.
The idea was conceived by three British businessmen, named Dan Roe, Kathy Walker and Hugo Pickford-Wardle. “In the United Kingdom they realized that there was a lack of vocation for certain jobs in unattractive sectors, such as accounting and tax collection, and they launched this program to convince young people of their relevance in the economy,” he points out. In Catalonia, Olson assures that Startup Sherpas is already in talks with a dozen large companies.
