“I’ve wanted to go back to school for a long time,” says delivery girl Elaine, who has worked with delivery at iFood for four years. At 17, she left school after failing a year of high school. Then, he started dating, got married, had two children — and returning to school became more distant.
At age 55, she discovered the opportunities of iFood Takes Off, an education platform that offers free courses in various areas, such as training in traffic safety, personal finance and entrepreneurship, in addition to videos that explain how delivery men and women can return to their studies.
“After more than 30 years, I decided to go back to studying”, reveals Elaine in third video from the series “Abrindo a Bag”, by Much More Than a Request campaign, in which she talks about the importance of education and answers questions from her colleagues (the videos can be seen on company channel on YouTube and on its digital platforms).
Today, Elaine is part of the group of 5,000 delivery men and women who won an iFood scholarship in the program My High School Diploma to take the preparatory course for the National Examination for Certification of Skills for Young People and Adults (Encceja) in August 2022. Whoever passes the test receives a certificate of completion of Elementary or High School.
In a six-month course, she prepares to receive her diploma. “I don’t intend to stop at high school,” the delivery woman reveals to her colleagues in the video. Want to know what your big dream is? She tells it here, in the Real Stories section of iFood News, its entire trajectory.
Ease of studying
Upon hearing Elaine talk excitedly about her studies, the iFood delivery men present in the video begin to ask questions. “But in these six months, do you complete all of high school?” Agnaldo wants to know. “That's it, completely”, replies Elaine, adding that she just had to send her data to start the course in January, without bureaucracy.
She explains to her colleagues that the preparatory course for Encceja is distance learning and that all classes are recorded on the platform, so delivery men and women can study when they have time available. “I watch classes on my cell phone,” he explains.
For those who are concerned about the number of hours dedicated per day to studying, Elaine says: “You are the one who does [the number of hours per day], because the classes are recorded. You access it, study it and you can seek support so they can give you a review. There’s a lot of exercise to do.”
Returning to school brought her new perspectives. “I’m terrible at Chemistry and Physics. There was a Physics class about Joules [unit of energy], and that day I thought I was the smartest person in the world! I loved the class. I started to love Physics.”
Therefore, Elaine leaves a message for her delivery colleagues: “To my partners, I would like to say that, if you have the opportunity to go back to school, take it. No one can take study away from you. After so long, going back to studying is a huge satisfaction for me.”
iFood initiatives in the area of education
In addition to the program My High School Diploma, started in January 2022, iFood has other educational initiatives for delivery men and women, such as:
- Free online courses or with a scholarship iFood Takes Off; more than 192 thousand delivery men and women have already signed up for the courses and more than 71 thousand certificates have already been issued;
- Preparation to work with delivery: more than 35 thousand partners have already signed up for Sesi's professional training course (free);
- Free training ranging from guidance on safe riding to first aid training and traffic Safety, like the Helmet Angels;
- Pedal Responsa, an online course carried out through WhatsApp on iFood Pedal, contains content about rights and duties when cycling and has already been completed by 5,654 people.
Find out here iFood education programs for delivery partners. And follow all initiatives for the category on Delivery Portal.
