Good ideas
Die beiden Ideen, die wir hier vorstellen, haben eins gemeinsam: Sie sollen unser Leben verbessern oder zumindest leichter machen.
Full marks to…
...Foxes Academy,
for helping people with learning disabilities find paid employment.
In the UK, 1.5 million adults live with a learning disability. Only six per cent of them are employed. Foxes Academy hopes to change this. Its three-year course aims to prepare young people with learning disabilities for a career in the hospitality industry. The course also teaches them how to live independently.
The programme benefits more than just the students. Steve Cassidy is managing director in Britain and Ireland for Hilton, a hospitality company. His company has offered 21 work placements and hired nine graduates from Foxes Academy. He told The Economist
that the programme has been good for the “culture and environment” of Hilton’s hotels.
Governments also gain from the programme. Most disabled adults don’t have the means to live independently, so they spend their entire lives in residential care paid by the government. If they could support themselves, it would save the government a lot of money.
One look at pictures on the Foxes Academy’s website makes it clear who gets the most out of the programme, however: the young people whose faces are beaming with pride. https://foxesacademy.ac.uk
Full marks to…
...Don’t Worry Village, for providing a refuge for work-weary South Koreans.
“It was my life, but I couldn’t find me in it,” Kim Ri-oh told BBC Worklife. Despite doing “everything asked” of her, Kim felt as if it was never enough.
South Korea has one of the most demanding work cultures of any country in the world, even after the government cut the maximum working hours from 68 hours to 52 hours per week in 2018. Some South Korean millennials are pushing back against the culture’s unrealistic expectations of what makes professional and social success.
“Don’t Worry Village” is a governmental project set up to encourage community building. Its motto is “It’s okay to rest. It’s okay to fail”. The village has repurposed unused buildings in the city of Mokpo, turning them into cafes and creative spaces.
The project’s founders, Park Myung-ho and Hong Dong-woo, want young people to find sohwakhaeng, or happiness in small, personal joys. “Younger Koreans are searching for sohwakhaeng,” said Park. “Whether that be indulging in a slice of cheesecake at your local bakery, writing a song or a book.”
Forkimri-oh,thevillageisnownotonly her refuge but also her employer. https://dontworryvillage.com
Indian-american tech investor
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