UniCredit Foundation: over 16 million over three years for young people’s education

UniCredit Foundation, the UniCredit Group’s corporate foundation, is renewing its partnerships with Teach For All and JA Europe with an investment of over 16 million euros over the next three years, in addition to the 14 million already allocated between 2023 and 2026. The aim is to further expand the reach of the programmes in Europe and Italia to tackle educational inequalities, by investing in young people and educators and supporting initiatives to offer the younger generation greater learning opportunities.

The announcement was made during the event ‘Beyond Academic Performance. A European Dialogue on the Future of Education’ in Rome. The discussion was opened by Andreas Schleicher, the OECD’s Director for Education and Skills, who presented the PISA 2025 data specifically relating to Italian students. “In this context,” explained the UniCredit Foundation in a statement, “the role of teachers is becoming increasingly strategic in supporting young people to develop their skills, confidence and ability to navigate a rapidly changing society. The most recent evidence highlights a number of crucial challenges facing the education system: in Italy, 47 per cent of students reported using artificial intelligence-based chatbots to support their learning at least once a week, in line with the OECD average, making the issue of continuous teacher training central to supporting educational and technological innovation.”

Italia will be among the countries involved in both programmes. Teach For All, specifically, will operate in eight countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia. JA Europe, on the other hand, will be present in 11 countries: Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.