International Day of Education 2026

2025 saw the implementation of the “Look4Ward – Build Your Future” program, aimed at inspiring young people on the new transformative trends in the economy and society and on the development of transversal skills essential for their personal and professional growth.

Giovani e Lavoro, is a program launched in 2019 in partnership with McKinsey & Company's Generation Italy ETS Foundation. It is aimed at young NEETs throughout Italy and was created to facilitate their entry into the professional world. The initiative also aims to bridge the mismatch between job supply and demand through free training courses designed to develop the skills most in-demand by companies in the hi-tech, precision mechanics, sales, hotel and restaurant, and photovoltaic sectors.

To date, the program has trained over 5,500 young people and involved more than 2,000 Italian companies, contributing to a job placement rate of over 80% among participants.

Zero Neet is a project promoted by Fondazione Cariplo, in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo and the Lombardy Region, dedicated to young NEETs in Lombardy. The initiative was created to reach those neither in education nor in employment and guide them through personalized orientation, training, and job placement programs.

The first phase of the project aims to reduce the NEET rate by reaching 20,000 young people over the next three years. Through a network of local partners, Zero Neet offers targeted support and strengthens connections between schools, services, and businesses, with the aim of creating concrete opportunities and preventing the risk of social exclusion.

FUTURA, the project implemented with Save the Children, Forum Disuguaglianze e Diversità, and Yolk, aims to combat educational and material poverty among girls and young mothers (aged 13 to 24) by helping them obtain a qualification and/or re-enter the workforce, enhancing their talents, and supporting young mothers in balancing their careers with motherhood.

The Generation4Universities program with McKinsey & Company's Generation Italy ETS Foundation, an acceleration program for entering the world of work for final-year undergraduate students who stand out for their academic achievements but are limited by their living conditions.

Fellowship is a training program for young surgical graduates specializing in oncology surgery, promoted by the SICO Foundation to fill a training gap in Italy, where there is no official specialization in oncology. Intesa Sanpaolo supports the scholarships that allow young doctors to access an advanced and personalized two-year program, with rotations at top Italian centers and integrated multidisciplinary training. The goal is to create a national model of high-level specialization, aligned with international standards, and train future leaders in cancer patient care.

A project by Cometa, an organization that has been welcoming and supporting vulnerable children and young people, including those with disabilities, for years, promoting their growth and education. The initiative, developed in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo, is aimed at young people with intellectual disabilities and offers practical and theoretical training, supported by internships and mentoring, to promote inclusive and sustainable employment.

Intesa Sanpaolo's program, aimed at high school students in grades 3-5, promotes financial education and the development of skills needed in the workplace. Through practical activities and orientation sessions, it helps young people make informed choices for their future.

The program also includes training modules dedicated to key topics such as finance, communication, digital skills, agile methodology, and inclusive language, offering useful tools to address tomorrow's professional challenges.

A project developed with Bocconi University and aimed at Italian high school students. The initiative promotes reflection on issues of social exclusion through educational sessions and the creation of original projects. At the end of the program, awards are given to the best national project and the most outstanding works submitted by students.

Opening Future digital classes guide students through the digital world and its opportunities. Intesa Sanpaolo is particularly supportive of the fourth edition of Roll Cloud. Working on the Cloud, a project by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale that involved over 2,000 students and 100 teachers from 20 schools in Piedmont and Lombardy. With 688 hours of training and 110 completed projects, the initiative helped students develop transversal skills and navigate STEM careers, with a focus on cloud computing and artificial intelligence, thanks also to the contributions of industry experts.

In collaboration with the associations Quarto Savona 15 and Vento e Vertigine, the project involves high school students in a program dedicated to the culture of legality and the fight against mafias. Through educational sessions, testimonials, and opportunities for dialogue, the students are guided to develop civic awareness and a sense of responsibility, becoming active citizens and guardians of the country's fundamental values.

The Youth Forum is a body with both advisory and propositional functions that was created to listen, enhance and integrate youth perspectives into the social impact strategies promoted by the Bank, in particular on the issues of social innovation, sustainability and inclusion.

Through the Youth Forum, Intesa Sanpaolo aims to actively listen and provide tangible responses to the new generations' requests for change and consolidation: young people aged 18 to 25 have applied to join the Youth Forum and contribute personally to the construction of a more inclusive, sustainable future that is attentive to the needs of the younger generations.

The team will remain in office for three years, it is made up of 12 girls and boys with a strong motivation and a strong predisposition for social issues, innovation and youth protagonism.

Where: Emilia-Romagna

Objectives: to support and accompany the active participation in the life of the community of 32 young people between the ages of 11 and 19 at risk or in situations of social withdrawal and/or early school leaving; to increase the skills of the Educating Community to identify, prevent and respond to situations of social withdrawal and early school leaving.

Activities: the project implements actions such as home activities, orientation and accompaniment to workshops (digital, expressive creative languages, storytelling, soft skill development), experiential opportunities, psychological interviews to support parenting. The work is carried out in a network system, which involves specialized social, health and/or educational services, families, institutional realities, formal and informal associations. The territorial communities of reference become "prevention and protection factors" with respect to the dynamics of isolation and social withdrawal, which are not individual problems, but the result of fragile social structures, and therefore critical issues to be taken care of collectively.

Where: Calabria, Basilicata, Sardinia and Molise

Objectives: to encourage the acquisition of transversal skills of 5,000 students and 20 teachers to reduce the onset of deviance and addiction phenomena; to strengthen the skills of the educating community on risk factors and alarm bells of malaise phenomena.

Activities: training for students, included in the curriculum, on issues of prevention from behavioral and substance addictions and identification of situations of discomfort; activation of an online listening desk, a call center and an instant messaging service to provide listening and guidance to children of the 20 school complexes involved; training of reference teachers to acquire useful skills to recognize risk situations;  activation of a national roadshow with the Mobile Prevention Center: 10 stops in the school complexes with laboratory training, awareness and consultancy, information and support action for the city streets; training of teachers and parents on the issue of youth distress.

Where: Emilia-Romagna, Lazio, Piedmont, Lombardy and Liguria

Objectives: to improve individual and group school well-being and relational skills; strengthening of individual complementary skills.

Activities: from the twinning between 270 patients in short or long stay wards of 5 pediatric hospitals and 350 children attending primary school, the project carries out 9 and 16 artistic workshops of figurative arts, painting, animated storytelling, muppets, puppets respectively. For hospitalized children, the proposal becomes an opportunity for play, learning and self-enhancement. The children of the identified schools, who live in contexts of high educational poverty, social and cultural contrasts, open up to beauty and creativity. Added to this is a dimension of care and attention to the other when, together with the artist-postman, they prepare the small artistic gifts (drawings, artifacts) to be sent to the hospitalized children.

Where: Lombardy

Objectives: to encourage the involvement of NEET and ELET children and young adults, who struggle to find an active role in contemporary society; to prevent school drop-outs and early school leaving; to reduce the number of young people who drop out of school in order to reach below the European threshold of 9%.

Activities: through systematic networking with local authorities and companies in the area, the project aims at a target of about 800 young people and intends to intercept at least 15% of them (124 people) with a significant potential impact on the territory, through the implementation of psychological and orientation desks, experiential workshops, street education actions, training courses and school interventions aimed at individuals.

Where: Campania

Objectives: to combat educational poverty and the digital divide by promoting school inclusion, enhancing and deepening knowledge of the green, ICT and STEM sector applicable in the environmental field, increasing female participation in the study and work of ICT and STEM disciplines and in green jobs and guiding students towards university courses and green jobs with a high content of STEM and ICT knowledge in environmental innovation companies.

Activities: for 150 students from 6 secondary schools, a training course on STEM disciplines for the ecological transition is activated; an orientation activity, managed by companies in the energy, circular economy and digital sectors. The project also includes a co-design process with teachers, experts and educators from Legambiente Campania, with the aim of creating a manifesto dedicated to non-formal methodologies for environmental and digital education and the creation of a community of 10 young women in the sciences (researchers, teachers, engineers, professionals in the energy sector), who spread awareness of the environment and STEM disciplines in the area.

Where: Marche, Calabria, Sicily and Friuli-Venezia Giulia

Objectives: to stem the phenomenon of educational poverty of minors who come from fragile and culturally disadvantaged backgrounds; to increase the number of minors who benefit from healthy and positive family-type educational models; to decrease the percentage of families who incur measures to remove their children by the judicial authorities; to increase the percentage of educational actors who are trained in the use of skills and effective tools to combat educational poverty.

Activities: for 80 foreign minors, minors with low ISEE, minors from single-parent households, management of semi-residential centres and workshops for the development of skills (soft skills and STEM); for 60 families, parenting support, psychological helpdesks; for 60 operators, families and volunteers, training course on educational poverty analysis, network strategies, light foster care model and reference legislation,  establishment of the Family Register for Light Foster Care.

Where: Sicily and Lombardy

Objectives: to contribute to the fight against the phenomenon of ELET-NEETs, in the South and North of Italy; to accompany and support 105 young people in the recovery or creation of a thinkable, personal and working future through school; to increase the employability of at least 85 direct beneficiaries and facilitate their job placement; to deepen the knowledge and development of skills of 50 operators of the staff of the Ass. Centro Studi Opera don Calabria and La Cometa SCS.

Activities: incoming and ongoing orientation; personalized tutoring; enhanced school-work alternation; training outings to deepen the teaching modules and develop technical-professional skills; management of a real order (event). Workshops (social volunteering, environment, reading, dance, music, coding), street education. Training trips with exchange between young beneficiaries of the two territories, to encourage the discovery of different contexts, stimulate interest in learning, build meaningful relationships and guide future choices. Capacity building actions aimed at managers, coordinators and designers of the two entities.

Where: Lombardy

Objectives: to promote the psychological and relational well-being of minors and families in the area in a state of vulnerability, paying particular attention to families with a migrant background. Enhance students' educational, relational and technical skills; promote personal self-determination and psychological well-being; promote the inclusion and active participation of families in school and community life, overcoming linguistic, social and cultural barriers. To increase awareness and responsibility towards the territory.

Activities: for 1,330 students from primary to secondary school, basic skills enhancement courses, intercultural and legality workshops, training and orientation courses, drama therapy and theatre workshops, psychological and orientation support in Arabic, individual motivational and cognitive enhancement desk, orientation tutoring; training and guidance for 70 adults and parents; 25 professionals of the partnership and support network awareness-raising meetings on the Child Protection and Child Safeguarding policy are aimed at  10, and capacity building courses on strategic planning for support to the territory are addressed.

Where: Lazio, Calabria and Sicily

Objectives: to use education and training in environmental sustainability as a key tool to combat school drop-out and act for the inclusion of migrants, with a view to networking between educational institutions in disadvantaged areas of Southern Italy, international cooperation and solidarity organizations and reception centers for migrants.

Activities: 1,200 secondary school students from neighbourhoods with a school dropout rate higher than the national average, 50 teachers, 15 migrant-facilitators, 300 citizens and 5,000 users/followers are involved in actions to enhance knowledge and skills; implementation of a web platform that proposes "Eco-assignments" and gaming dynamics to explore global and local issues and launch concrete actions that engage students and migrants, so that they become protagonists of their own growth path and actively contribute to the sustainable development of their community; innovation and immersion, using educational methodologies such as role-plays, which lead to a greater understanding of the consequences of climate change.

Where: Campania

Objectives: To contribute to the prevention of implicit and explicit early school leaving in lower secondary school; to promote systemic change based on the adoption of educational technologies, collaborative methodologies and motivating teaching paths, with particular attention to the development of students' digital and scientific skills. Improving learning, ensuring equal opportunities of access; strengthening school guidance through seminars, simulations and role playing activities; innovating teachers' skills; increasing parents' educational and digital skills

Activities: involving 5 lower secondary schools (3 for the province of Naples and 2 for the province of Salerno) and 910 students of the second and third classes chosen by school principals and teachers among those with the highest scholastic and motivational fragility, the following will be activated: a continuous educational support service with the use of Virtual Reality (VR),  creative and scientific laboratories, digital educational skills for students in socio-economic hardship; in addition, training courses for at least 50 teachers on the educational use of VR and a digital literacy module aimed at at least 85 parents.

Where: Lazio, Calabria and Sicily

Objectives: strengthening basic skills, discovering one's passions and developing the personal identity of 270 children and young people between the ages of 6 and 13 with scholastic, emotional and relational fragility.

Activities: an integrated team involves educators, pedagogues and professionals in the sector in a stable path of co-design, observation and supervision and coordinates the actions of activation of extracurricular study support desks (Italian, mathematics, English), creation of musical, creative and expressive workshops, an educational summer camp, outings in the area with a strong educational value, and educational and psycho-pedagogical care structured, with specialized interventions (psychological, therapeutic, neuropsychiatric) for the most complex cases. 

Where: Puglia and Basilicata

Objectives: to enhance the educational offer of schools characterized by users with strong educational poverty, introducing an innovative teaching methodology, which integrates tools, such as psychomotor skills, motor activity, coding and educational robotics, in order to strengthen the educational-pedagogical skills of teachers and effectively develop the cognitive and transversal skills of students.

Activities: through the "Integrated String Methodology", scientifically constructed through a four-year research path managed and coordinated by the CNR – Institute for Educational Technologies, the project combines coding and educational robotics practices with psychomotor skills and introduction to sport in the context of primary school curricular activities. 195 boys and girls aged 6-11 and 15 teachers from 5 schools are involved.

Where: Friuli Venezia-Giulia

Objectives: to improve the health and daily life of children with autism spectrum disorders and neurodevelopment, increasing school inclusion. Building a process of real sharing between school, family, social welfare services and civil society, managing its complexity.

Activities: involving about 30 minors (and their families) from 2 primary schools and 3 lower secondary schools, 60 curricular and support teachers and 450 able-bodied peers, the project stimulates cultural growth and skills, as well as ensuring continuity of information in taking care of the child throughout the school career. It is developed in the continuous identification and observation of the specific needs of each beneficiary, definition of the school day and strategies facilitating the integration of the child, the use of special activities that allow a longer stay in the school context with one's peers, home interventions of accompaniment and operational continuity, awareness-raising activities and training for peers on the issue of disability.

Where: Burkina Faso and Niger

Objectives: financial and material assistance to families, accelerated education and language programmes; improvement of teaching and learning resources, through increased investment in teachers' professional development and the provision of appropriate teaching and learning materials; improvement of the well-being, resilience and learning readiness of 118,071 children

Activities: the main activities planned for 2025 consist of providing school uniforms and school supplies to students; covering school fees, exam fees, transport costs, educational support for adult students, girls, children with disabilities; supporting teachers with training, covering salaries, providing materials; community involvement through awareness-raising sessions, communication,  Registration and visibility campaigns.