International Day of Education 2025

Through projects and programs to support inclusive education, and dedicated training initiatives, we want to help young people to be citizens capable of taking an active role in the current social context, of knowing how to understand it in order to choose and decide the direction to take in the present for their future, without discrimination.

This commitment includes, for example:

Progetto Webecome – educational proposal for the inclusive training of children. It is designed for elementary school children but is aimed at the entire educational community, i.e. teachers, school administrators, parents and all those who care about prevention and intervention on the phenomena of discomfort and fragility in early school age.

Z-lab: Intesa Sanpaolo's three-year course for transversal skills and orientation, dedicated to boys and girls in secondary school (from the third to the fifth grade) which aims to spread financial education and translate it into conscious behavior, experiment with entrepreneurial dynamics through practical experiences aimed at developing skills that can be used in the future, encourage the development of the main skills required by the world of work, supporting boys and girls in choosing their course of study or professional career. In addition, a Modular training proposal aimed at high school boys and girls consisting of workshops and specific training initiatives, built to develop skills and knowledge that help face the challenges of tomorrow by transforming them into opportunities. The workshops cover topics such as finance, guidance, communication, agile methodology, digital skills, inclusive language.

School4life: a project promoted by ELIS in collaboration with 11 large companies, including Intesa Sanpaolo, which provides orientation activities aimed at young people at risk of dropping out of school and initiatives to support families and teachers.

Financial education: initiatives and workshops offered by the Museum of Savings, our phygital museum dedicated to financial education, to support the dissemination of culture and financial literacy to the younger generations and adults 

This line of activity takes the form of orientation initiatives, combating educational poverty and supporting employability, also through partnerships with third sector entities and the main Italian excellences in the university sector for study support and credit.

Some of the main projects that are part of this commitment are:

Giovani e Lavoro, the initiative born in 2019 in partnership with the  Generation Italy ETS Foundation, a non-profit of Mckinsey & Company, which brings young people closer to the world of work by offering free training courses to help them acquire the skills most requested by companies in the Hi-Tech, precision mechanical industry, sales, hotel-catering, and photovoltaic technician sectors. 

FUTURA, the project carried out with Save the Children, Forum Disuguaglianze e Diversità and Yolk, to combat educational and material poverty of girls and young mothers (between 13 and 24 years old) through the achievement of a degree and/or reintegration into work, enhancing their talents and supporting young mothers to reconcile their professional career with motherhood. 

The Generation4Universities program  with the Generation Italy ETS Foundation, a 9-month acceleration course for entry into the world of work for students in the last year of a Master's Degree who stand out for their academic results, but who are limited by the elements of the context in which they live.

Ideas2Grow – Agritech Edition, an initiative carried out in collaboration with Talent Garden, which aims to encourage employment through self-entrepreneurship. A free Agritech Master's Degree, dedicated to under 34s (students or undergraduates in Agricultural, Forestry, Environmental Sciences, etc.) with an innovative business idea in the agritech sector, to acquire all the essential tools to launch their business. 

ELIS Digital Engineering - created in collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano and with some companies belonging to the ELIS Consortium that make their expertise available - is aimed at talented recent graduates enrolled in the Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering at the Politecnico.  

Elis - Officine Futuro - Project for high school students to support young people in their study and work choices. The project provides a digital platform specially developed to inspire young people towards the professions of the future

For Study Support and Credit

For the Study Support we collaborate in various capacities with over 60 Italian universities, with initiatives also aimed at the employability of students. Among the loans of Intesa Sanpaolo, supported by the Impact Fund created by the Group to promote credit inclusion, there is the loan "Per Merito" which promotes the educational emancipation of post-diploma students. "Per Merito" has supported about 15,000 students since 2019, of which about 3,600 would not have completed their studies without the loan or would have had to change it.

Our commitment to supporting research and enhancing talent is embodied in the promotion of partnerships and initiatives aimed at high school and university students through the proposal of a multidisciplinary set of experiences, services and tools to support them in the enterprise of building their own tomorrow of people and citizens.

In particular, 2024 saw the implementation of programs aimed at inspiring young people on new transformative trends in the economy and society and on  the development of transversal skills that are fundamental for their personal and professional growth.

Some ongoing projects:

Osservatorio Look4ward - it is a platform for the analysis and monitoring of the needs for new skills, for the regeneration of professional figures in distinctive areas for our country. The observatory on the skills of the future conceived together with the "Franco Fontana" Research Center in Strategic Change of the LUISS Guido Carli University, and developed in partnership with SIREF Fiduciaria, Accenture and Digit'Ed.

Build Your Future - A program of events that aims to inspire students on the main transformative trends of the economy and society and on key skills in a labor market in continuous and rapid transformation. In 2024, the "Look4ward – Build Your Future" Program achieved the important goal of meeting over 10,000 students in the main Italian universities.

"The transition of companies to a circular economy: analysis of the implications in business processes and functions"  - a research project developed in collaboration with LIUC Cattaneo University which aims to observe and analyze the dynamics and impacts of the transition to the circular economy with an in-depth analysis of  the manufacturing sector, SMEs and on some sectors of interest from the point of view of the circular economy, such as food, clothing, automotive and urban planning.

CREO - Competencies and Resources for Entrepreneurial Orientation - the academic and entrepreneurial training platform of the University of Bergamo born from the collaboration with the territorial innovation ecosystem. It is a mixed path of courses, workshops, events and challenges, designed to discover one's talent and develop the skills essential to access the world of work.

Intercultura  – annual and six-month international student mobility programmes in collaboration with the Intercultura Foundation that offer particularly deserving young students, enrolled in secondary schools in Italy, to spend a period abroad and study in a foreign school.

Building the Future together - Transversal skills and new economies - free webinar program for secondary school teachers and students in collaboration with DeaScuola. The initiative aims to inspire young people in choosing training paths suitable for the development of  the transversal skills required to undertake the new jobs of the future.

• "DigitALL: Building alliances for a conscious and inclusive digital community" by Helpcode Italia. The project takes place in Genoa, in the municipalities of Valpolcevera, Medio-ponente and Centro Ovest. It promotes the commitment of a network of partners, so that the digital education of young people becomes a shared commitment and every individual, regardless of his or her situation, has access to digital with adequate training to use it in a conscious way. The project involves 700 beneficiaries including student minors, young people from educational centers, hospitalized children, teachers, educators, family members. The planned actions include: experimental paths for the launch of Digital Classrooms; specific training for teachers and families; digital education in the classroom; intergenerational digital education for young and old; digital education in the paediatric wards of the Gaslini hospital and in educational facilities for fragile individuals; dissemination of Digital Pacts among the various educational agencies.
•  "Growing Together: Promoting Soft Skills and Early Screening for SLD in the Schools of the Municipality XII and XIII of Rome" by Rete per il Sociale onlus. The project works to combat the growing school dropout rate in the reference area, through a dual strategy: development of soft skills for about 1,300 students and implementation of an early screening, certification and treatment system for Specific Learning Disorders (SLD), in order to prevent early school leaving and other psychiatric disorders. The actions launched: implementation of educational tools through digital, creation of multidisciplinary work teams with teachers, educators and mediators, training of parents.
  
  
• "FLOWERS - growing in the flow: learning and feeling good" by SOCIETÀ COOPERATIVA SOCIALE ADELANTE ONLUS. The project active in Bassano del Grappa, in the province of Vicenza, is structured as an innovative training place, launched in agreement with the public school (which identifies and involves the direct beneficiaries) and which uses pedagogical sites as a tool to invest in children in early school leaving and early school leaving and accompany them in the emergence of their interests and talents. A new school model of education, training and job placement, based on practical experience. 100 vulnerable young people aged between 12 and 25, with a focus on the 14-21 age group, are divided into 4 "classes" for an entire school year, work in co-management with public institutes and services and training centers, promoting experiments on craftsmanship, digital, entrepreneurship and transversal teaching. The presence of a heterogeneous but integrated team of educators-trainers, professionals and local actors is important.
  
  
• "WISHING A FUTURE – GUARANTEEING THE RIGHT TO THE FUTURE FOR THE YOUNGER GENERATIONS" by WE WORLD - G.V.C. O.N.L.U.S.. The project takes place in the cities of Bologna, Naples and Cosenza. It offers young people the opportunity to plan and be protagonists of their own future and of the change of their communities of reference through an innovative model of citizenship based on: centrality of the participation of vulnerable children as a tool to increase awareness of their abilities and potential; co-planning with young people of educational and cultural opportunities; promotion and strengthening of civic engagement at EU level; expansion of the skills of the educating community. Direct beneficiaries are over 1,000 young people, with a focus on girls, of which at least 700 in a situation of serious vulnerability, 50 youth leaders and leaders of the educating community, 50 teachers and 10 political decision-makers from the neighborhoods involved. Young people will experience educational proposals ("Wish lab"), socialization (sport, photography, debate), strengthening of skills and competences (Future Thinking Lab, paths for gender education), participation and community commitment.
  
  
•  "Compass: promoting access to higher education for students with a migrant background" by Guardavanti for the future of children ETS. The project is active in various municipalities in the provinces of Padua, Fermo, Matera, Reggio Calabria and Cagliari. It is aimed at promoting the scholastic and social inclusion of students with a second or third generation migrant background, equipping them with tools to increase the possibility of choosing high school and technical education paths, when they correspond to their real motivations and potential, and to reduce the gap between students with a migrant background and natives in school performance. The project includes 5 activities aimed at different recipients, in the lower and upper secondary schools involved: training for 60 teachers and operators on the topics of intercultural teaching, Italian L2 for study and orientation; orientation course for 200 lower secondary students; Italian L2 enhancement for study for 150 secondary school students; peer to peer education actions by 100 secondary students towards lower secondary students and peers; meetings with 100 parents. 

• "A district a thousand smiles" by Arci Milano. In the district of Berat in Albania, the project is aimed at 200 minors aged 3 to 18 involved in extracurricular activities to support study, professional training for adults, play and recreational activities for children. Actions aimed at the social inclusion of young Roma are also planned to bridge the educational and training gap in terms of knowledge of some school subjects such as languages, mathematics, computer science and civic education and to give, for the future, more job opportunities in the agricultural, commercial, catering and IT services fields.
•  "WEDUT_Educazione, Training and Food Security for Afghan Women in Poverty" by Nove ETS. Implemented in Kabul, this project benefits 320 women in vulnerable conditions, with a focus on women heads of households and students. The project promotes educational courses lasting 9 months (one school year) for 120 Afghan girls unable to access secondary education; the training of 100 Afghan women by ensuring that they have intermediate and advanced courses in English and access to the TOEFL exam, which allows them to earn an income in permitted sectors and places or continue or undertake online university studies. 
• "UNITED4EDUCATION (U4E)" by OPENCOM ISSC. The project, active in Serbia, involves the recruitment of 20 edu-leaders to be trained and subsequently placed as teachers in the selected schools. Their task is to guide educational processes in an inclusive way, become catalysts for social change, promote a culture of justice, equity and respect within educational communities. In addition to improving access to quality education for the 5,000 students of the institutions involved, the project aims to reduce peer violence, promote tolerance and improve the well-being of students and school communities. The training is also intended for 50 members of the teaching staff to improve their teaching skills and contribute to a more inclusive and supportive school environment.