Partnership between RAI Amsterdam and ROC college
Next generation of hairdressers give RAI visitors a fresh new look
RAI Amsterdam has entered into a multi-faceted partnership with the ROC college Amsterdam. It includes students of the new Urban Sport Trainer course, who will be given access to the empty spaces and parking garages of the RAI, and a pilot that starts in the autumn in which student hairdressers will be giving RAI visitors a fresh new look as part of their studies.
Urban Sport Trainer students are taught to use the city for sport and give sports training to local residents. Utilising the buildings and objects in the city for sports is all the rage. Under the motto 'We Move Amsterdam', the sports trainers look for flexible, shape-shifting urban spaces that students can learn to deploy in various ways. In the RAI complex, students will be using various spaces including temporarily unused or unoccupied car parks.
Sports for locals
“These projects are teaching us to rediscover locations,” says Stephanie Mathas, responsible for the partnership on behalf of RAI Amsterdam. “How can we utilise unused, unoccupied square metres to create (added) social value? The challenge for students is to get the city’s residents moving in the urban environment. The city itself is their playground, with a focus on the RAI on Thursdays. In addition to having classes in the RAI, we are now exploring options with the ROC to enable students to train neighbourhood residents inside the RAI complex.”
RAI Amsterdam will also be performing a pilot with the hairdressers’ course at ROC Amsterdam. From the start of the new school year, students will have the opportunity to style the hair of RAI visitors. “This may involve people who have just spent a long time in an aircraft or on a train, or whose hair was windswept on their way here,” Mathas explains. While mainly involving grooming and styling, a full-on hairdressing appointment can be an option too.
Preventing waste
RAI Amsterdam is bringing corporate social responsibility to life via many initiatives and activities. “We look at the social needs in our environment and what we can do or contribute to meet these demands,” Mathas explains. “It doesn’t matter whether it involves facilities, expertise, items, manpower, networking or materials. We look at whom we can benefit and try to establish a connection with them. This broadens our (added) social value on the one hand, and prevents waste of our company activities by reframing unused value so as to fulfil social demands on the other.”
While the initial idea was to establish a RAI Foundation for this purpose, there are now so many initiatives that are inextricably linked to the RAI’s operations that the initiatives and activities have been anchored within the RAI organisation itself.
About Urban Sport Trainer studies
The Urban Sport Trainer studies teaches students to become sports and exercise coordinators, providing activities to various target groups in an urban environment. This involves people of all ages, both locals and expats. The bilingual Urban Sport Trainer course is part of the Sport & Movement Amsterdam training. The students are taught in various prime locations in the city such as the Museumplein, Vondelpark, IJ waterway and now RAI Amsterdam.
About the MBO College Zuid hairdressers’ course
The hairdressers’ course at MBO College Zuid in Amsterdam trains students to become hair stylists, all-round hairdressers or salon managers. Once graduated, students will be ready to work in the sector.