about paf
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About PAF. The Prince Albert Fund was established to promote Belgian business abroad and give young talents an opportunity to ‘go abroad’ Through a grant Young Professionals receive the opportunity to provide a project anywhere in the world with a Belgium company - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
About PAF• The Prince Albert Fund was established to promote Belgian
business abroad and give young talents an opportunity to ‘go abroad’
• Through a grant Young Professionals receive the opportunity to provide a project anywhere in the world with a Belgium company
• After a rigorous selection, the participant receives a grant (net 22.000 €) from the Fund, representing the equivalent of a one-year salary
1986 to 20126172 candidates applied ….
320 Alumni
+ 150 companies
About the participants/laureates/alumni
• master degree - mostly in business or engineering; in most cases; enterpreneurial spirit; mature, motivated, proactive, eager to learn; multilingual; Belgian or EU citizen with links to Belgium
• 75% of the laureates continue to pursue an international career and 55% are doing so within a Belgian company
• The majority of the laureates are therefore still actively involved in the promotion of Belgian services and goods abroad
• Because they believe in the mission of the Fund, the alumni take an active role in further building bridges between leading international companies and high potential young managers
About the company• A company submitting a project needs to be based in
Belgium and can have Belgian or foreign ownership. – There are no restrictions with regards to activity or size
• A good project matches the following criteria:– It deals with international business development outside
Western Europe– The PAF professional is entrusted with considerable decision
making power– The PAF professional can explore and work out new strategies
for the host company– The PAF professional is NOT a trainee within the company!
PAF is perfect match …
• Professional is willing to invest in a challenging international business project
• Companies can be entrepreneurial in their choice of project
• 12 months = test period for further collaboration
My experience in China• Verdon• SME from Antwerp• High-end furniture• Worldwide sales• Goal: from 0 USD to 2.000.000 USD
in one year• Train local management
Lessons learned• Hard skills
– Technical– Organisational– Analytical– Language
• Soft skills– Leadership– Intercultural– Negatiotion & sales– Communication
Gained experiences• The unique elements that the Prince Albert Funds offered me
throughout this year were; – Working in culturally different environment which did not always make sense.
– Delivering results in challenging environments
– Learning how to work independantly and be self reliant in resolving problems
– Being entrepreneurial, taking the initiative
Not everything was work related
Get to know new culture See the world
PAF colleagues
PAF in practice
• www.princealbertfund.be• Next step: application by 14 January 2013• Jury: 6 March 2013• Orientation weekend: 22 & 23 March 2013
It is what you make of it!