The Prince Albert Fund recently celebrated its 30th anniversary in the presence of King Albert and Princess Astrid. The fund, newly-chaired by Chris Burggraeve, wants to double the number of grants awarded to young professionals travelling abroad to work. The Prince Albert Fund was set up in 1984 by the King Baudouin Foundation. It finances young professionals wanting to carry out a project for a Belgian company abroad. To date, the fund has financed 362 young professionals working for 175 firms. Barco and Umicore have received the largest number of grants, with respectively 25 and 13 projects financed. China is the destination of choice, welcoming 78 projects, closely followed by the US (68 projects) and Brazil (24).
During the anniversary celebrations and the launch of “The Prince Albert Fund 2.0”, King Albert and Princess Astrid were guests of the FEB (Federation of Belgian Businesses) and welcomed by its president Michele Sioen and director Pieter Timmermans.
Chris Burggaeve presented his vision for his mandate. In our digital era, better communication should bring more suitable candidates to the table. The fund intends to place more emphasis on small businesses or start-ups and with a larger budget to play with, the organisation hopes to "change the lives" of more than 350 young people by 2030. To do this, a campaign has been launched, targeting companies and former recipients of the award, aiming to raise 2.5 million euros by mid-2016. This sum is equivalent to 100 grants of 25,000 euros.
(Source: Belga)
