"85% of workers around the world are dissatisfied and little identified with their work," says Sonia Solà, founder of Wavekup, a multi-channel platform for vocational guidance and personal growth aimed mainly at adolescents from 13 to 18 years, which serves to help them discover their tastes and motivations, as well as the ins and outs of the different professions and trades, so that they have the maximum information to choose their studies correctly tomorrow.
There are some people who, from the earliest childhood, are clear about their professional vocation, and dream of being doctors, pilots, actors or teachers, which allows them to direct their training from the very beginning to achieve that goal. Many others, on the contrary, go through adolescence without knowing exactly what they would like to study or what they will do in the future. There are also various young people who want to practice a profession without having an accurate image of what it really consists of, which means that, once they start working, they come face to face with reality and work frustration arises.
As the founder of Wavekup herself tells us, “the project is born from my own experience”. At a certain point in his life, Solà felt “that he was in the wrong place”. His need to find answers about his professional vocation ended up giving rise to the desire to help other people.
As is known, in our educational system, students often have to make important decisions about their future at a very early age, when, in many cases, they do not yet have the emotional and academic tools to know themselves well and discover their interests.
According to a study by DigitalES (Spanish Association for Digitization), only 38% of secondary and high school students are clear about what they want to study. Doubts or ignorance cause many boys and girls to make a random decision, which will end up contributing significantly to school dropout, which in our country today reaches figures of 16% (well above the European Union average, which is of 9.9%).
In this context, Wavekup plans to fill some of the current gaps and provide adequate information and tools to the youngest to reflect and decide on their future, through two fundamental ways, as Solà points out.
The first consists of bringing the world of work closer to adolescents through its channel and social networks, with interviews with professionals who explain what their day-to-day life is like, the most stimulating aspects and also those that they like least about their profession, the skills and training needed to develop it, etc.
The second route provides direct help to students through self-knowledge and vocational guidance workshops, both in institutes and at a private level.
Sonia Solà decided to reorient her professional career by training as a professional coach and counselor. Her current vocation is to help young people so that they can know what theirs is, so that, in the future, they can feel fulfilled with their respective jobs. Sonia discovered what she wanted to do, but, logically, she needed to have the necessary amount of money to start her new job adventure. As she herself says, "the project really started in October when they granted me the microcredit from MicroBank."
Sonia's is just one of the many projects that have been able to see the light of day through the support of CaixaBank's social bank, which offers financing to entrepreneurs, freelancers and micro-businesses so that they can start up or expand their business, with the ultimate goal of generate wealth and well-being in the territory as a whole. Throughout 2021, this social bank granted a total of 15,221 microcredits to the self-employed, entrepreneurs and micro-enterprises in Spain for a total value of 196 million euros.
Thanks to the support of MicroBank, the idea that Sonia had is today a fully consolidated business that offers support to many adolescents and young people. The founder of Wavekup is moved when Sonia Prats, the mother of Ivo, one of the many students who have participated in the activities of this personal orientation project, thanks her for helping her son to have much clearer ideas about your professional future.
As Cristina González Viu, General Director of MicroBank, explains, “microcredits promote financial inclusion, productive activity, job creation and personal and family development. Furthermore, they are an empowering tool for thousands of talented people who should probably otherwise give up their illusions.”
González is convinced that the success of Wavekup has not only helped its founder to achieve her job, but also benefits society as a whole, which, with projects like this one, can continue to progress thanks to the talent of those who combine vocation and work .
