Enel Green Power Group

07.10.2021 Share

Courses to teach young people how to code and digital literacy for teachers and parents, study grants for young people in economic difficulty, music lessons, math tutoring and courses on renewable energies and the circular economy: Enel Green Power is offering an increasingly broad range of educational programs as part of its ongoing commitment to creating shared value with the communities in areas where the Group works.

Coding for kids, digital literacy for adults

In the village of Shongoane in South Africa, a project has been launched for children aged 7-14 who have never used a computer before, enabling them to acquire basic computer programming skills. The youngsters learn coding, which is used to create software for computers, apps and websites, and can explore Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in an informal and socially cohesive setting.

In Colombia, Enel has partnered with the non-profit organization United Way to train 40 teachers in the use of Excel and virtual digital tools to use remotely, in particular for the Covid-19 emergency. At the Santa Elena de Piedritas school in Talara, Peru, Enel has signed an agreement with the NGO Crea + to train teachers, parents and students in remote digital learning technologies. In the areas located near Enel’s power plants, a project has been launched to donate computers that are no longer required by the company to be used by young people.



Learning the arts

Also in Peru, thanks to an agreement with the Fondazione Sinfonía, created by tenor Juan Diego Flórez, the Nucleo Enel has been created as a space in which to teach music to children and teens and, through this, to reinforce their skills and develop values like trust, proactivity and innovation. In the district of Ventanilla, not far from Lima, Enel contributes to the high quality training of teachers andyoungsters at some schools through an adaptive learning platform for specialized mathematics. Also in Ventanilla, Enel volunteers use their own professional experience to contribute to courses in Industrial Electricity at the Nuevo Pachacútec Technological Institute.

In Colombia, in Bogotá, Fómeque and Choachí, as part of the international program Connecting Energies, other employees of the Group are sharing their own professional expertise in the energy sector through meetings with students aged 14-17, to help them reflect on their own future careers once they have finished school.

“During this year of the pandemic, the International EGP voluntary program Connecting Energies has focused on skills and expertise as the key to increasing the resilience of those already in situations of vulnerability, who can acquire knowledge useful for reassessing their own present and future,” explains Suelen Quadri, Head of the Sustainability Project in Connecting Energies corporate volunteer program and Head of Sustainability Africa, Asia and Oceania.

“In this vein is ‘Educating with Energy’, a career guidance program for youngsters in our communities in Colombia, which matched students at schools with volunteers from Enel, who have shared their own work experiences and the studies that led them to the world of energy.”

In South Africa, meanwhile, EGP is financing study grants for twenty or so young women who come from poor areas and would not have otherwise had the means to attend school or university. Their studies range from medicine to financial management, human resources and social sciences.

Quality education

In Italy, a project born from the partnership between Enel and the Elis training center, called School4Life, involves around 800 students in a quality education program, in line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 4. On one hand, the program raises awareness among young people about the opportunities that the energy transition offers, encouraging them to look at jobs of the future and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects. On the other, the initiative aims to reduce school dropout rates and so-called educational poverty, with an approach based on experimentation and learning by doing.

The program has already begun in 15 technical institutes and involves a hundred or so Enel experts, who help the youngsters move closer to the world of work, also through practical experience, providing them with training in soft skills, digital trends, diversity and inclusion, sustainability and innovation. The initiative also involves middle schools: the volunteers encourage the young people to study technical subjects and stimulate their curiosity in the world of energy.

Also in Italy, as part of EGP’s attention to the younger generations and school-aged youngsters, and to get them actively and consciously involved in change and the energy transition, Italian cartoonist Makkox has created four videos on the topic of the green future, sustainability and the circular economy, using language that is simple and direct.

The same issues are at the center of the Energy On The Go program in Greece. The volunteers – who include engineers, environmental specialists and experts in physics – have developed interactive materials for students of various ages, special games and challenges that help them learn through play how to build a future with zero emissions and new opportunities for everyone.