2. Mai 2018

Unibail-­Rodamco supports young people with job hunting

Individual coaching and job fair: initiative “UR for Jobs“ helps young career entrants with difficult starting conditions.

On 3 May 2018, Unibail-­Rodamco Germany invites to the job fair “Komm auf Arbeit“ in Palais Vest in Recklinghausen. A total of 20 companies meet with job-­seeking adolescents and present their training programmes. In April, Unibail-­ Rodamco realised individual job trainings with around 40 adolescents in their company headquarters in Düsseldorf. Both, the job fair and the trainings are part of the Europe-­wide initiative “UR for jobs”. For the programme of “Komm auf Arbeit” Unibail-­Rodamco cooperates with the City of Recklinghausen and mayor Christoph Tesche as well as with the non-­profit organization JOBLINGE.

mfi Shopping Center Management GmbH – a division of Unibail-­Rodamco Group is operating Palais Vest since its opening in September 2014. On three floors, it provides 42,000 square meters GLA for 120 shops, restaurants and service companies. There are about 2,000 jobs in the center and 2.4 million people in the catchment area. With an unemployment rate of 9.7 percent (as of March 2018) Recklinghausen belongs to the structurally weaker regions in Germany.

“As an operator of shopping centers we have strong ties to our locations and of course especially to the people, who live and work in the surrounding areas”, says Bruno Bittis, Director of Human Resources at Unibail-­Rodamco Germany. “It also means that we want to participate actively on site and give something back.” Eric Toennies, Center Manager of Palais Vest, adds: „We are happy that we can make a contribution with ‘UR for Jobs’, strengthen the local job market in Recklinghausen and foster the municipal development of the city.“

At the job and apprenticeship fair at Palais Vest, interested young people get insights in different professions and possible perspectives for their careers. For this purpose, the candidates directly get in touch with the participating companies. Numerous national and international companies like Unibail-­Rodamco itself, Media Markt, Deutsche Telekom, or Kaufland are involved in the job fair. Prior to and during the event around 45 employees from Unibail-­Rodamco Germany are in action.

The initiative “UR for Jobs” is part of Unibail-­Rodamco’s strategy “Better Places 2030”, in which the group formulated its own standards regarding corporate responsibility. Part of this strategy are especially issues of environmentalism, mobility transport, social responsibility towards their locations, and of the internal corporate culture.

Within the non-­profit organisation JOBLINGE, which supports the programme as a partner, economy, state und private individuals engage together to foster young people with difficult starting conditions. With precisely fitting qualification, voluntary mentoring and support during the apprenticeship the initiative reaches above-­average results. More than 70 percent of the participants successfully start their working life.