Abstract:

The Growing Leadership for the 21st Century Project, developed by the Instituto Crescer Movimento Cidadania e Juventude in partnership with Fundación MAPFRE, was carried out between October 2022 and September 2023, and trained 42 young people aged between 14 and 15, belonging to the 9th year of elementary school, at Escola Básica Maria José Hulse Peixoto, located in the municipality of Itajaí, Santa Catarina - Brazil.

With more than 20 years of existence, Instituto Crescer is a non-profit institution that works to develop projects and programs aimed at professional qualification of adolescents and young people in order to enable their inclusion in the World of Work and provide quality improvement. of their lives and those of their families.
The partnership between Instituto Crescer and Fundación Mapfre began in 2018 during the Volvo Ocean Race Regatta, in which Itajaí was one of the stopping points. During the regatta, the activities developed by Instituto Crescer regarding the professional qualification of young people in vulnerable situations to access the world of work, caught the attention of the Spanish company, starting a partnership that has now lasted five years.

From this partnership, annual projects have been developed which have already benefited more than 260 young people, aged between 14 and 18, from 23 public schools or private education scholarship holders, from the 7th year of Elementary School to the 3rd year of High School. The young people have an average per capita income of 1.5 minimum wage, all residents of the municipality of Itajaí, Santa Catarina/Brazil.

The Leadership XXI Project aimed to promote youth empowerment in order to enable the active participation of students in both the planning and execution of activities, making the teaching and learning process more youth-centered, adapting to the demands of a constantly changing world and, favoring the development of autonomy and creativity. This methodology represents a response to the demand for education that goes beyond the mere accumulation of knowledge, aiming for the integral development of young people and enabling them to become protagonists in the world of work and in life.

In this way, theoretical and practical activities were guided by the triad formed by the Theory of Complexity, Transdisciplinarity and Ecotraining, assumptions of the International Network of Creative Schools (RIEC), of which the institution has been part since 2016, with the following axes of knowledge: Oral and Written Communication, World of Work and Ethics and Citizenship, together with the construction of the Life Project.

The project activities took place from Monday to Friday from 7:30 am to 11:30 am in the classrooms and laboratories of the University of Vale do Itajaí - UNIVALI, a Crescer partner institution.

The project also included the participation of young people in three volunteering actions: The Ocean Race; Together for Rio and the III Volleyball Solidarity of Crescer. Volunteer work provides opportunities for young people to acquire new skills and improve existing skills. This may include practical skills such as teaching, leadership, teamwork, communication, problem solving, opportunities to learn about social, cultural and environmental issues as well as expanding understanding of the world, promoting participants' personal growth.

Keywords:

teenagers, world of work, professional qualification, volunteering