Europe
France
Toulouse
Airbus Foundation Flying Challenge
Overview | |
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Location | Toulouse |
Partners | United Way L'Alliance |
Division | Airbus SAS, Airbus Commercial Aircraft, Airbus Defence and Space |
Programme
In Toulouse, the Foundation works with United Way L'Alliance. Students come from 22 different schools and all participate to three key events:
Launch (November)
Careers fair (March)
Closing event (May)
Depending on the school level, there are two different formats:
Collective mentoring for the first year of the programme, including workshops, lunches at school for the mentors and mentees, a careers fair and meetings between parents and mentors.
Individual mentoring for the following years, comprising workshops and meetings outside school focused on cultural experiences, and educational and professional guidance.
Télémaque programme
Overview | |
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Location | Toulouse |
Partners | Institut Télémaque |
Division | Airbus SAS, Airbus Commercial Aircraft, Airbus Defence and Space |
Programme
In Toulouse, the Télémaque programme focuses on students from disadvantageous backgrounds and who have been identify as very engaged in school. They are given a grant that they can use with their mentors for cultural activities like museums, theatre, job fairs, etc. They are also encouraged to think and establish a career plan with their mentor.
Words from our mentors and mentees
Other projects of the Airbus Foundation
Inspiring hospitalised children
At Toulouse University Children’s Hospital, patients get to experience ‘un Coin de Ciel Bleu’ – a patch of blue sky. Through this Airbus Foundation programme, the hospitalised children experience a virtual tour of the different parts of an airplane, get to virtually take off in a flight simulator and play games with Airbus employee volunteers.
Bringing aeronautics to hospitalised children
Ailes pour Tous, or 'Wings for All', is a day dedicated to the children at Purpan Hospital near Airbus Headquarters in Toulouse, France. The Airbus Foundation and the Toulouse Rotary Club collaborate with the children’s hospital to bring young patients and their families to Airbus for an unforgettable aviation experience. A visit to an Airbus A380 is followed by first flights, giving each family a chance to soar together through the skies of Toulouse.
Spain
Airbus Foundation Flying Challenge
In Spain, the Flying Challenge boosts success at school and acts as a trigger for later successes in life and work.
With the support of Airbus volunteers and the Spanish Red Cross, the company works with school children when they need help most: before taking career choices that could determine what they become in the future. The Challenge works in three main areas:
Advancing entrepreneurship in each student as a tool to develop their capacities to work in groups, design initiatives, manage resources, increase their empathy, overcome challenges and seek support.
Exposing students to all their career choices so that they find the path that best suits them to continue their studies.
Identifying their true vocation so that they invest their efforts in a fulfilling career.
The project takes students on a journey, helping them identify how they can contribute to their environment with their current skills and those that they can train and acquire through education. Airbus volunteers, with the support of trained professionals, offer weekly mentoring in the classroom, group work and a range of other extra-curricular activities.
Overview | |
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Partner | Spanish Red Cross |
Location | Albacete, Getafe, Cadiz, Illescas, Sevilla |
Division |
Airbus Commercial Aircraft, Airbus Defence and Space, Airbus Helicopters |
Programme
In Getafe, students and their families learn to plan their future through a life plan that helps them envision where they want to be in the future and the path that will take them there.
Through various workshops and exchanges, students learn about their training and employment options, as well as their own capacities and capabilities, so they can identify their true potential and learn what they need to do to fulfil their dreams.
Mentoring takes place throughout the year, and three yearly activities showcase the project's aims and successes:
Launch (November)
Careers fair (March)
Closing event (April/May)
In Puerto Real, Airbus volunteers help students to identify, plan, and execute a social entrepreneurship initiative in their community.
Social entrepreneurship acts as a vehicle to advance useful skills for the job market such as research, planning, team work and asset management. Through weekly contact with the Airbus volunteers, students also learn more about a real working environment and what it takes to be employed.
Mentoring takes place throughout the year, and three yearly activities showcase the projects aims and successes:
Launch (November)
Careers fair (March)
Closing event (April/May, depending on school levels)
Words from our mentors and mentees
Germany
Airbus Foundation Flying Challenge
The Flying Challenge was launched in Germany in 2016. Like in other countries, the programme aims at fostering integration and provide access to experience and opportunities to students, regardless of their background.
University students, high school students and employees form a mentoring trio, in which the content is tailored to the needs and wishes of the mentee. Mentors act as role models and help tackle potential issues such as low self-esteem, while giving them insights on the different career paths they could take.
Overview | |
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Partner | Rock Your Life! |
Location | Munich, Hamburg, Donauwörth, Friedrichshafen |
Division |
Airbus Defence and Space |
Programme
Over a 8-months period, Airbus mentors meet regularly with their mentees, exchanging on their daily life and their future opportunities, supporting and inspiring them to further continue their education. The three main highlights of the year are the Kick-off Day, where mentor and mentees meet and learn more about each other, the Career Fair, where students are able to meet with other Airbus employees and learn about all the different jobs at Airbus and finally, the Flying Day, where they are able to experience - many for the first time - the thrill of flight.
Airbus Foundation Explorers Centre
The Airbus Foundation Explorers Centre, launched in October 2018, introduces children to the exciting world of aerospace. It is a unique education centre in Germany that teaches coding, science, mathematics and engineering skills to local children ages 6-12.
Overview | |
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Partner | Digitalwerkstatt |
Location | Airbus Defence and Space headquarters, Ottobrunn |
Division |
Airbus Defence and Space |
Programme
With the Airbus Foundation Explorers Centre, children are inspired to expand their technical and scientific skills in weekly workshops by learning topics such as:
• Fascinating facts about aerospace
• How to programme a robot
• Construction and programming of a digital space rocket that flies to the International Space Station.
Airbus employee volunteers and teachers from Digitalwerkstatt, a local non-profit that delivers youth science curriculum, share their passion for science and seek to inspire the next generation of aerospace stars.
Continuing to inspire
The Explorers Centre curriculum is connected to the content of the Airbus Foundation Discovery Space, a platform readily already available on the web for children around the world. Young people can learn how to design rockets, planes and space equipment. Learn more on the Discover Space website.
United Kingdom
Airbus Foundation Flying Challenge
Launched in 2016, the award-winning UK Flying Challenge programme is currently running successfully at Filton in Bristol and Broughton, North Wales. Working with specialist NGO partners, it has been designed to include specificities aligned to the requirements of the UK, while following the global mission of the programme.
Participants follows a structured, engaging and hands-on mix of activities which runs throughout the academic year, including mentoring by Airbus employees and local University students, including:
A series of ten weekly workshops learning about flight, aircraft past and future, inspiring talks, visits to various facilities and other engaging interactive sessions such as the Airbus Foundation Little Engineer programme and the Airbus Foundation Discovery Space digital platform.
A four day intensive programme designed to enable students to learn more about the breadth of career opportunities in the aviation industry.
A second series of week of ten hands-on sessions to support the build of a model aircraft, working in collaboration with Airbus employees and additional University student teams.
A flying lesson where every student got the chance to fly an aircraft.
By the time the students graduate from the Flying Challenge, participants will have undertaken a wide range of specialist experiences, worked with committed employee mentors, completed a skills portfolio, worked towards a nationally recognised qualification (level II in Basic Skills) and an Industrial Cadets Gold Award. The aim is for them to develop confidence, self-esteem and a belief in themselves that will motivate them to continue with, and succeed in their education. In addition, all employee mentors receive a recognised mentoring qualification.
The programme also supports Airbus’ contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – SDG17, Partnerships for the Goals and SDG4, Quality Education.
Airbus Foundation Discovery Space
The Airbus Foundation Discovery Space (AFDS) was officially launched by European Space Agency astronaut and former International Space Station crew member, Tim Peake CMG, in January 2017, but officially opened to schools in May 2017.
In addition to schools, the AFDS has hosted young people from charitable organisations, such as the Girls Network, which are fully supported through the Airbus Foundation.
The AFDS is also engaging in wellbeing and diversity research, for example, allowing young disabled people to engage with the Airbus in ways they never thought were possible. This work is supporting an ongoing study with the University of Hertfordshire and the Muscle Help Foundation that will be published in the coming months.
Through the Airbus Outreach Ambassador programme, employee engagement with the AFDS is increasing. Around 140 Airbus employees are volunteering their time at the AFDS to run activities or ‘expert’ workshops, including some ‘train the trainer’ sessions where employees are supporting the AFDS staff to run specific workshops on Space.
Words from our mentors and mentees