Peer2Peer is a preparation program for the job market which, through a dynamic pairing of a university student and a person with a disability looking for work, also aims to provide experiences of meeting different realities.
Through this program, all participants benefit from the opportunity to get to know a world different from their own and learn how to deal with it, overcoming the fear of the unknown and being surprised by each other's (often unexpected) abilities.
Peer2Peer also helps to raise awareness among the younger generation - the future leaders - of the need to create a more inclusive community, training them in the importance and added value of including people with disabilities in the job market. This program also gives university students the opportunity to get to know the reality of disability and break down possible prejudices about it.
The program runs for eleven weeks, with weekly sessions consisting of workshops (in which all the pairs take part together) and One2One sessions, in which the pairs work together on topics such as identifying their own skills, interests and personal goals, learning about the job market, developing useful tools for entering the job market - such as the Curriculum Vitae (CV) or the Skills Profile (PC) - and preparing for and simulating job interviews with recruitment and selection companies. At the same time, throughout the program, the peers develop friendly relationships with each other, which leads to a very positive sense of belonging and group spirit.
Peer2Peer pilot project was developed by the Inclusive Community Forum (ICF) in 2018, and was aimed at Nova SBE students and people with disabilities from the Municipality of Cascais, who wanted to prepare themselves to apply for the job market.
After the success of this 1st edition, two students participating in the pilot edition were invited by the ICF to coordinate the development of the 2nd edition of Peer2Peer at Nova SBE, together with Nova SBE's Careers team.
Since then, under the coordination of university students, Peer2Peer has been replicated and scaled up to other higher education institutions in the Lisbon area, and is now present in several higher education institutions.