Education is essential to the future of the new generation. The UniCredit Foundation invests in young people to ensure equal access to opportunities for growth and development in partnership with educational institutions. Ultimately, the aim is to give young people the chance to realise their full potential in society.
School & Job
School & Job
In today’s fast-paced environment, it is more important than ever that students have access to an education that will build the foundational knowledge and skills needed to participate in society and play active roles in their communities. Education is essential to reducing social inequality. A quality school offers safe spaces, adequate infrastructure and services, and equal learning opportunities for all – including those who are most disadvantaged.
Our achievements
€16m
Total donation600,000+
students targeted for training during the period 2023-26Bridging educational inequalities through global partnerships
The UniCredit Foundation and the global education network Teach For All have launched a three-year partnership which aims to enhance the quality of education in underserved schools across Europe and advocate for educational equality throughout the continent.1
Focused on six countries where UniCredit operates, the transformative partnership builds on a robust existing relationship established between Teach For All and the UniCredit Group in 2022. This has already successfully trained and supported almost 600 diverse fellow teachers within Teach For All’s European network. These efforts significantly improved the educational experiences of over 40,600 students across the continent in just one year.
The new support from the UniCredit Foundation for the period 2023-2026 will play a pivotal role in enabling Teach For All to expand its impact and cultivate new teacher-leaders to drive positive educational outcomes for Europe’s most marginalised students.
Teach For All operates through a network of affiliated independent organisations which implement the project at the national level in the European countries included. Each organisation recruits and selects individuals from various backgrounds, including recent graduates, experienced teachers and professionals from the private and public sectors. These individuals undergo an intensive training programme to teach in schools facing the greatest challenges related to educational poverty. They receive ongoing support and guidance throughout their two years of teaching experience in schools.
€5.5m
total donation
2,000+
total cumulative new teachers selected and trained over the period 2023-2026
216,000+
total cumulative students that benefited over the period 2023-2026
6 countries
Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Romania and Slovakia
1. For more information on Teach For All refer to the website: https://teachforall.org/
In July 2023, Junior Achievement Europe joined with the UniCredit Foundation to unveil Re-power your future, a new ground-breaking initiative aimed at preventing early school dropout rates involving 10 UniCredit countries in a three-year programme.
Junior Achievement2 stands as Europe’s largest non-profit organisation dedicated to preparing young individuals for employment and entrepreneurship. It is a member of Junior Achievement Worldwide, which has a century-long legacy of delivering hands-on, experiential learning in entrepreneurship, work readiness, and financial literacy.
Targeting teenagers aged 10 to 19 – a crucial age for further education and future labour market integration – the joint programme strives to reignite student engagement in schools, enhance academic outcomes, curb dropouts, and inspire young minds to pursue careers aligned with their passions. The Re-power your future programme is focused on schools operating in regions with particularly high dropout rates, high poverty rates, or weak educational systems, identified using data from the national Ministries of Education and national statistics agencies.
€6.5m
total donation
3 years
of implementation
4,000+
schools involved
400,000+
student beneficiaries
10 countries
Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia
2. For more information on Junior Achievement Europe refer to the website: www.jaeurope.org
The power of grassroots initiatives for lasting impact
Leveraging the in-depth knowledge of local stakeholders and a collaborative approach, the Call for Education is an invitation for organisations to apply for funding aimed at addressing educational poverty through a process that ensures transparent, independent, and fair selection processes across all in-scope countries.
The goal of the Call for Education 2023 initiative was to support programmes combating educational disadvantage in Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. It comprised a total funding pot of €3.2 million for programmes targeting secondary school students (age range 11-19) and implemented by non-profit organisations. with particular attention paid to tackling early leavers, encouraging university attainment, and supporting acquisition of skills to enter the job market.
The call was launched in June, inviting the Group’s local banks to identify a shortlist of up to five outstanding projects capable of meeting the objectives, while also creating growth opportunities for the proposing organisations. Applicants were required to submit a logical framework and a KPI tracking tool to build an activity plan underpinned by evaluation indicators and solid and transparent monitoring tools. A specially established Evaluation Committee selected the winning projects in October.
From 175 candidates, 18 projects were selected to be awarded with a total amount of nearly €3.25 million. This initiative follows the Call for Education – Romania and Bulgaria, which was launched at the end of 2022 with the disbursement of €500,000 to four projects aimed at addressing educational disadvantage in the two countries.
175
candidates
18
projects
€3,250,000
awarded