Gessé Pereira da Silva is 43 years old and has worked as an iFood delivery person for two years. While still young, he stopped studying to support his family, but now he has decided to resume his studies and complete high school. He shared his story on the program Mais Você, on Rede Globo, and tells details of his journey in an interview with iFood News.
In search of opportunities in life, Gessé has worked with a little bit of everything: with events, in buffets, with equipment rental and, for eleven years, in a pharmacy chain. During the pandemic, he lost his job. As he was licensed to drive a motorcycle, he decided to start working as an iFood delivery man — since then, he hasn't stopped making deliveries.
“I had a daughter when I was 18, so I stopped studying to start working and support the family”, recalls Gessé. Always very dedicated and committed, he got many job opportunities, but he felt that the lack of a high school diploma made a difference.
“Not having a high school education always bothered me. Despite having managed to work in large companies, as a result of my commitment and ability, I always felt that I was lacking in studies”, explains the delivery man. “When I filled out applications on job sites asking for education, I didn’t know what to say, I was embarrassed. I want to finish high school because I’m not going to go through that again.”
It was there that he met the iFood Takes Off, a platform with free courses dedicated to delivery people, restaurants and markets registered on the application. Gessé then started attending classes and discovered the program My High School Diploma, which encourages delivery drivers to resume their studies to take the National Examination for Certification of Skills for Young People and Adults (Encceja).
Return to studies
Even after registering to resume his studies, he did not believe he would be able to obtain certification. “It was after a lot of insistence from the people at iFood, who contacted me to encourage me not to give up, that I decided to try”, he recalls. “I went back to studying and realized it was worth it,” says the delivery man, who took the test in August and is awaiting the results to find out if he passed.
For the future, Gessé's big dream is to continue studying and specialize in one of the most promising areas at the moment. “I want to take a technical course that will help me enter the technology field. I want to dedicate myself to building a career in the area, maybe even on iFood”, the delivery man dreams.
Determination was what drove him to follow the path of education. “When I started studying for the test, I watched all the course classes, all the iFood Decola videos, answered the surveys… I have always been interested in everything that iFood provides me with in terms of training and benefits.”
Knowing that, on TV, his story will be heard by people from all over Brazil, Gessé hopes that his trajectory can inspire those who also dream of completing their studies. “I'm there, being myself, an iFood delivery person who enjoys what he does. I hope that people become interested in studies, that they embrace all the opportunities that come their way.”
