Education
School4Life, the program to combat school dropout
School4Life is the project designed to combat early school leaving that sees companies and schools allied and at the side of students, teachers and families.
The project
ELIS is a non-profit training organisation and consortium strongly committed to initiatives promoting collaboration between schools and enterprises.
School4Life is a project launched by ELIS in collaboration with 11 major companies over the two-year period 2021-2023, which includes orientation activities aimed at young people at risk of dropping out and initiatives to support families and teachers.
Intesa Sanpaolo has also joined School4Life, in continuity with its commitment to help generate in young people the awareness necessary to choose the right educational path.
The first edition of School4Life involved a total of 15,000 students throughout Italy, with a focus on the regions of Sardinia, Campania, Sicily, Lombardy and Liguria where, according to data from the Ministry of Education, the phenomenon is most widespread.
In 2023, the companies, with the intention of not wasting the investment made and to strengthen the fight against early school leaving, have decided to relaunch the School4Life project for the two-year period 2023 - 2025. The second edition involves more than 80 schools and 4000 students from middle schools and high schools.
Orientation to combat early school leaving
Increasingly, globalisation and digital developments make education directly related to the risk of unemployment. However, it is well known that in our country the problem of early leavers from education and training is accentuated: it stands, in fact, at 12.7% of the total school population1, well above the threshold of 9% by 2030 set by the EU. Moreover, in our country the percentage of NEETs (i.e. 15-29 year olds not studying and not working) reaches 23.1%.
A scenario that makes it clear that Italian schools, starting from secondary school, must provide students with cues and elements for reflection to guide them in their subsequent choices.
1 - Source: EUROSTAT, Educationand training in the EU
Intesa Sanpaolo's training proposal
The scenario just described prompted us to take an active part by focusing precisely on middle schools.
In this second edition, in cooperation with ELIS, we are once again taking our School4Life training programme to 8 middle schools, making use of the Group's corporate expertise and harnessing the teaching and pedagogical skills of our colleagues at the Museo del Risparmio and the Learning Academy.
Educational activities and orientation meetings alternate with the realisation of creativity marathons (creathons) and moments of discussion and learning on an experiential basis.
Teachers and parents, who accompany the children on their school journey, are also involved in dedicated training programmes and webinars and have at their disposal the ‘Noi Restiamo’ listening and support desk designed to identify and recover at-risk situations.
The programme also promotes the approach of the female student population to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) subjects, with the idea that these skills will increasingly determine their job opportunities in the future.
In these times of transition and uncertainty, schools are at the centre of civic life and are called upon to be engines of social growth and evolutionary processes that require effort and strategic innovation. It is becoming increasingly evident how investment in education and training is an indispensable asset to guarantee young people full social and economic citizenship.
And it is precisely for this reason that our renewed membership of School4Life makes concrete our desire to give young people tools and ideas to guide them with ever greater awareness in choosing their future.
Last updated 20 September 2024
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