Quality education
Fostering youth education and employability
Intesa Sanpaolo supports specific initiatives focused on fostering youth education and employability, tackling educational poverty and early school leaving, as well as promoting diversity and inclusion. Through these initiatives, the Group aims to empower young people, bridge gaps in education and technology, and advance women in leadership, all contributing to long-term social progress and equality.
UN SDG SUPPORTED
Among the many initiatives aimed at empowering young people and ensuring equal opportunities for all, regardless of educational background, are:
‘Giovani e Lavoro’ program
A partnership with Fondazione Generation Italy, offering training for young people in high-demand sectors.
3,000 young people to be trained
>5,600 young people trained since ‘Giovani e Lavoro’ programme’s launch (2019)
(>700 trained through 28 classes in 2025)
Intesa Sanpaolo Youth Forum for Social Issues
The Youth Forum is a body with both consultative and advisory functions, created to listen to, enhance, and integrate young people’s perspectives into the Bank’s social impact strategies, particularly in the areas of social innovation, sustainability, and inclusion.
Generation4Universities Project
‘Generation4Universities’ provides university students from disadvantaged backgrounds with training, mentorship, and soft skills to enhance employability.
90 involved students
69 involved universities
18 involved Italian corporations as partners
‘FUTURA’ program
Promoted by Save the Children, Forum Disuguaglianze e Diversità and Yolk, targets educational poverty among young women, offering tailored training and reintegration into work or education. The two-year pilot project project ended its activities on September 30th. It was launched in three territorial areas with socio-economic disadvantages, providing growth and independence through personalised educational plans.
350 girls and young women involved, including 50 young mothers
‘Z Lab’ and ‘Modular Offer’ programmes
Group’s people mentor secondary school students in over 40 schools, focusing on transversal skills and career guidance.
‘Ecosistema Educativo per i giovani e le famiglie di Napoli’
It focuses on reducing educational poverty in Naples and Casoria by offering vocational training and employment services up to 500 students.
‘Look4ward Observatory’ and ‘Digital Restart’
‘Look4ward Observatory’: a strategic tool for identifying the skills required by future companies, promoting the upskilling and reskilling of professionals and supporting new businesses.
‘Digital Restart’: a program aimed at training and integrating unemployed people between the ages of 40 and 50 into the labor market by funding a Master's degree in Data Analysis. The program aims to develop new digital skills and reenter the labor market. The fifth edition concluded in February 2025, involving a total of 50 participants since the program's inception.
Spread of financial culture
The Group’s activities also include initiatives to support financial inclusion targeting young people. These initiatives address their educational and training needs, emphasising the importance of financial literacy and spreading financial culture to empower individuals to make informed decisions and improve their economic well-being.
Other initiatives to promote financial literacy
In 2025, the Museum reached more than 154,000 people through educational activities for students and adults, including guided tours, workshops, awareness events, and training programs, also delivered online. Among the new formats developed by the Museum of Saving in 2025 are: ‘A Look at the World’, a series of monthly webinars designed to provide high school students (aged 15–18) with basic knowledge on behavioral finance, inflation, debt, cryptocurrencies, the pension system, and misinformation; ‘Financial Education and Literature’, a series of four sessions to explore key economic concepts through renowned literary masterpieces.
The initiative successfully carried the project forward in schools, involving nearly 700,000 students. Developed as part of the ‘Il Quotidiano in Classe’ initiative, the project has evolved with new content and school-based sessions across Italy, aiming to foster the spread of economic and financial literacy among young people by providing them with the knowledge needed to make informed choices about their future and supporting the development of responsible citizens.
Loans to support education
The Per Merito initiative is delivered as part of the Fund for Impact, a credit plafond for social impact activities; it was established in 2018 and confirmed in the 2022-2025 Business Plan. It enables the disbursement of loans to people in society that would otherwise find it difficult to access credit despite their potential. In 2025 Intesa Sanpaolo financed about 125 million euro of ‘per Merito’ (in addition to about 27 million euro with university guarantees; considering both guarantees, there were over 18,150 students who received loans during the year).
A year of sustainability
Last updated 20 July 2026
Insights, events and projects for sustainability
