Today, the Schulte Group celebrates the International Day of Education (Jan 24), dedicated to people’s fundamental right to learning and development. In recent years, we have witnessed the power of education. It has helped the world adapt to increasing climate change, a pandemic outbreak, and transition towards a digital world.
Similarly, our Schulte Group community has shown great compassion and encouragement towards creating equal access to education for youth across the globe. In 2021, over 200 colleagues celebrated their birthdays by supporting education for youth activities. Further, 665 of you walked with us during our annual Step Challenge to unlock funds dedicated to youth learning and development. This has empowered us to run several activities for children worldwide – check out our community’s impact below.
In honour of the International Day of Education and to celebrate your passion for education, we would like to update you on our progress so far and announce two new partnerships focused on education for youth.
What we did so far!
In 2021, our local HR teams in China, the British Isles, India, and Cyprus have organised activities to support education for youth in their local communities. A total of 4,436 USD as well as in-kind resources such as books, learning supplies, clothes, and toys have been donated to students in need.
Also, a new policy was established to donate worldwide re-furbished equipment (e.g., laptops, PC’s, monitors etc.) to schools in need. This also reduces waste by giving functional equipment a longer lifespan. Hence, we support the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals 4 ‘Quality Education’ and 12 ‘Responsible Consumption and Production.
An activity that stood out in 2021!
Striving for inclusive and equitable education, it is a vital element for building a sustainable future. Our team in British Isles, donated funds to a local charity that supports people with physical impairments, or disadvantaged children in leaning to sail.
In addition, we partnered up with Junior Achievement (JA) in Europe and Asia-Pacific to organise the first maritime-themed Online Innovation Camp for secondary students around the world. This event took place between the 23rd until 30th September 2021 with the theme ‘Building Stronger Minds’.
We challenged secondary students to develop innovative solutions for tackling mental health at sea and shore. The winning team called SMART from the Philippines offered their unique solution which included a set of smartwatches, a multi-purpose box and satellite-powered internet which could help seafarers stay connected with their beloved ones.
We are proud of supporting innovative thinking in the classroom while inspiring and encouraging our young learners to explore new educational and professional paths in the shipping sector.
What’s new in 2022!
We intend to enable the development of sophisticated, cultured, robust and healthy generations through learning. In 2022, we aim to expand our efforts externally with two new partnerships.
The first is a new partnership with JA to run a global Innovation Camp in November 2022. This initiative will aim to reach as many students as possible in the 4million JA network. We will pose a new challenge for the students to tackle, focusing on digital innovation in the maritime industry. The DigiEduHack programme is an initiative created by the European Commission to inspire and encourage young people across the globe to innovate.
It will be dedicated to solving the most challenging digital education challenges organisations face today through a hackathon taking place simultaneously in major cities worldwide. The students will benefit from hands-on coaching and classroom learning on business modelling skills. A USD 28,000 financial sponsorship and volunteering by BSM experts has been committed through this partnership.
We look forward to learning from these young minds!
The second is a new partnership with Room to Read – an NGO that believes that world change starts with educating children.
Room to Read is tackling illiteracy and gender inequality in 20 countries worldwide. We established this partnership to help children in low-income communities where we operate, including India, Indonesia, and Myanmar.
Out of 750 million illiterate people, two-thirds are women and girls. Education is a powerful agent of change, which improves health and livelihoods, contributes to social stability and drives long-term economic growth.
Through this partnership, our goal is to uplift our communities by developing the literacy skills and healthy reading habits of young children and equipping young girls with essential skills such as critical thinking, empathising, and relying on themselves to meet day-to-day challenges and make informed decisions. By learning these skills, we support girls in handling challenges they may face, from gender bias to finding time to study.
The Schulte Group will support Room to Read’s mission with a USD7,000 donation. The donation will be used to run two programmes; Literacy to Primary Schools and Girls’ Education in Secondary Schools.
The first programme aims at transforming schools into child-friendly learning environments with teaching materials and libraries full of engaging children’s books and equipping educators with newfound skills and knowledge. The latter programme aims to enable girls to reach their full potential by providing mentors and material support such as school’s fees, transportation, uniforms, and more to succeed in their academic journey.
Room to Read collaborates with governments and other partner organisations to deliver positive outcomes for children at scale. It has so far benefitted more than 23 million children and over 40,700 communities.
We hope that this collaboration will open the doors to education for many children in our local communities. We are looking forward to seeing these programmes in action in April 2022.