The Fundación business de Navarra (FEUN) celebrated its 25th anniversary today. The President, Ángel J. Gómez-Montoro, declared that "the promotion of youth employment is, and will continue to be, one of the fundamental priorities of the Foundation". With everyone's partnership ," he said, "we can work to find solutions that will make it possible not to speak of today's youth as a 'lost generation' from an employment point of view, because I am convinced that it is not".

The event was presided over by Yolanda Barcina, who congratulated the entity "for improving the training of students, encouraging their work experience and bringing the university closer to business" and showed her "total confidence" in young people. The president of the Government of Navarra added: "Let's remove the obstacles, as the business University Foundation has done in these 25 years, and the new generations will lead us into the future."

The 25th anniversary celebration began with the screening of the video "25 years building bridges" and a lecture by Nuria Chinchilla, professor at IESE-University of Navarra, with the degree scroll "The Sustainability Triangle," in which she spoke about family, employment and society, and the need to distinguish these three aspects in a person's life.

Afterwards, University alumni Alejandra Lasa, who works at Deloitte Brussels, and Carlos González Ojer, director of Ojer Pharma laboratories, shared their own testimonies about their experience with the institution. The latter encouraged the Foundation to "continue in this way, so that companies understand that incorporating students from the University of Navarra means not only incorporating professionals with high technical and human skill , but also a sound business vision".

Recognition from the Foundation

The Foundation then presented three awards to individuals and institutions related to the Foundation. Firstly, to José Manuel Ayesa, from the Confederation of Businessmen of Navarra (CEN), for being a "reference institution in the business reality of Navarra", and secondly, to Volkswagen Navarra, the multinational that has requested the most internship and employment offers in the years of life of FEUN, whose distinction was received by Mikel Herrera, General Manager of development and strategy. Finally, María Jesús Martínez Goicoechea received the award for her 21 years of work in the Foundation.

The event was also attended by Ignacio Uría,General Manager director FEUN, José Antonio Sarría, President of the CEN, and Javier Taberna, director of the Chamber of Commerce of Navarra, as well as various political and business authorities of the region.

In its 25 years of existence, FEUN has signed agreements with more than 5,000 companies and has managed almost 40,000 internships for students of different degrees, around 5,100 PIE (Programa de Iniciación a la business) scholarships and more than 30,000 employment offers. It has also processed more than 1,300 internships in prestigious companies abroad through the Global Internship Program, Erasmus and Leonardo internships. It organizes the annual employment Forum and, through the Entrepreneurs Club, establishes a continuous training plan to promote entrepreneurship among students.

In 2010, the Foundation created the Best Work- Placement Excellence award for the best Leonardo internship and was recognized last September with the 2011 Quality certificate for Leonardo da Vinci mobility projects.

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