The airport Foundation "ProRegion" is 20 years old. With the change in the training landscape, there has been increased focus on issues such as vocational and social integration as well as the vocational guidance provided to young people. Each year the foundation supports around 30 to 40 projects.
Over the past year, ProRegion awarded an approximate total of €600,000 in funding. This included the "Frankfurt Training Project" of the Society for Youth Employment [Gesellschaft für Jugendbeschäftigung] and numerous training measures of the Protestant Association for Youth Welfare in Frankfurt [Evangelischen Vereins für Jugendsozialarbeit in Frankfurt].
"In the long-term, integration - whether in the professional environment or in society - can only succeed if you have a training position or a job. The foundation supports many young people in achieving this goal," explains Wolfgang Haas, Managing Director of the foundation and full-time head of vocational education and training at Fraport AG.
The support measures in place help to improve the employability of young people who have had difficulties during their time at school and also help with the integration of young refugees in the workplace and in society. Since it was established, the foundation has distributed almost €8.6 million in grants. By the end of 2018, this represented support for more than 500 individual projects.
"Since we started, more than 1000 young people have benefited from the funding projects. In future we shall also be supporting young people with targeted measures as they enter the world of work," explains Silke Niehaus, chief executive of the foundation and full-time area director of human resources at Fraport AG.
There is a long tradition of training support at Fraport AG. Fraport AG's predecessor, Flughafen Frankfurt/Main AG, has been supporting training projects using company funds since the 1980s. In order to permanently establish these activities and to provide a secure financial base over the long term, the ProRegion foundation was founded in 1999.