In 2021, iFood took over three public commitments in education to encourage basic training, train and employ people from underrepresented and low-income groups in the technology area and train Brazilians for the work of the future and entrepreneurship.
In 2022, these projects entered a second phase of maturity and new steps were taken, such as the partnership with XP and other companies to launch the Tech Movement with a commitment to raise R$ 100 million by 2025 in projects that accelerate training and employability in the technology area.
In November, on the occasion of the Donating Day, iFood declared that the its cause is education. “We have several extremely relevant fronts in the area of social and environmental impact, and we see that education is what we deliver to society beyond our footprint, or what is expected of us as a company”, comments Luanna Luna, head iFood education program.
In an interview with iFood News, she talks about iFood's prominent actions in education in 2022 and comments on how the company will advance in this field in 2023; read below.
iFN – At the beginning of 2022, what were iFood’s objectives in education?
Luanna – The first was to get to know the training market in tech and understand the best ways to train more people with a profile that meets what the market needs and on a larger scale.
We also had an important challenge: finding the best program model to support delivery drivers who want to complete basic education and begin a journey of continuous training that goes through basic training, the relationship with iFood and beyond iFood. We learned a lot and today we have a program in which we are able to serve 100% of delivery drivers interested in completing high school.
As for training related to the iFood ecosystem, we also learned a lot. Today we understand what is the best format and content to support our partners on their journey with iFood.
iFN – What were the highlights of iFood’s actions in education in 2022?
Luanna – In 2022, we launched the second version of the Tech Power, which supports the training of low-income people and underrepresented groups in the technology area with courses and scholarships. Potência Tech received two awards this year, the CNN Notables and the Aberje Award.
In the program, we received more than R$ 5 million in services and resources from other companies and reached 39 thousand people registered on the platform, more than 17 thousand technology scholarships made available and more than 1,000 people employed in the area in one year platform.
Believing that we will not transform Brazil into a technological power alone, we founded Movimento Tech together with other organizations. Today we are 30 companies, we have raised more than R$ 8 million and we have ambitious plans for 2023.
The path to making Brazil a technological power is not just looking at technology training. We need to look at basic education too. Therefore, another project that stood out was the Tech Marathon, co-invested within the Tech Movement.
At Movimento, we launched the first Technology Olympiad aimed at ninth grade and high school students. More than 80 thousand people were impacted and 222 were awarded in the final phase. Our goal is to provide tools so that students can develop the skills needed for the professions of the future, especially in technology. And, more than that, make them aware of career possibilities and recognize themselves in them.
We also mature iFood Takes Off, our training platform for restaurants, delivery drivers and markets. More than 270 thousand people have already been impacted by training on delivery and other important topics for the personal and professional development of our partners.
We also completed the first version of the My High School Diploma, a project aimed at delivery drivers who have not yet completed basic education. We provided scholarships so that delivery drivers who wanted to obtain a diploma would have support to create a study plan, materials and classes to register for the Encceja test. There were more than 5 thousand registered in the test that took place in August.
iFN – What types of training did iFood offer to delivery drivers? Will the programs have new features in 2023?
Luanna – When we look at delivery people, we see a journey. They join iFood to generate income quickly. So we support this at iFood Decola, which explains how to make a good delivery, what the best practices are.
Afterwards, the idea is that they can complete their basic education with My High School Diploma, with a scholarship for the test preparation course. Furthermore, we offer short courses and training at Decola, such as financial education and entrepreneurship.
At the end, we offer technology training opportunities at Potência Tech and discounts at some universities.
For us, teaching is not limited to these educational opportunities for delivery drivers, also includes culture. This year, we took 117 delivery people, with companions, to the theater and another hundred to the Salvador Biennial.
For 2023, the big bets are structuring the cultural offer and transforming My High School Diploma into an institutionalized program, so that 100% of delivery people who want to complete this stage can do so. We seek to make this journey more robust by bringing support and knowledge to them.
iFN – How did Potência Tech evolve in 2022 and how should it evolve in 2023?
Luanna – In 2022 we managed to create a second version of the Potência Tech platform with better usability and attracted interested audiences. Today we have 39 thousand people registered on this platform, of which more than 90% are low-income people or people with an underrepresented profile in the technology area.
We also tested many partners, more than 18 training schools. And we understand which of them we achieve the best course completion and employability rates. This way, we learn what works best and what we need to offer to train more people
As another major challenge is employability, we created a talent pool to connect people who are graduating from Potência Tech with companies. Furthermore, we encourage hackathons to generate experience and we are starting a program that is like an internship for those who are graduating.
In 2023, Potência Tech will gain even more scale. We will expand the training offer with the schools that were most successful. We will hire a greater volume of scholarships and continue to discover employability so that Potência Tech can consolidate itself as the technology talent platform that generates the most impact in Brazil.
iFN – An important moment of the year was the launch of the partnership with XP Inc. and 30 other companies in the Tech Movement. How did it start and what is planned for 2023?
Luanna – The Tech Movement arises from the union of organizations and people who believe that we need to invest in the agenda tech for Brazil to advance. For this to happen, we need to look from basic education, through training and employability in technology.
We believe that when we come together, we optimize the private social investment, we bring the collective intelligence of companies and, thus, we achieve greater and better results. Today we are 30 companies, which is very relevant because it shows that there is appetite and the proposal makes sense.
In 2022, the thesis was validated. For 2023, our objective is to strengthen our base and governance to reach at least 100 companies. This way we can increase fundraising and encourage more projects and generate more impact.
iFN – In general, how will iFood advance in the area of education in 2023?
Luanna – We will scale up the things that have already worked and continue looking for solutions to issues that we have not yet unlocked, such as employability in technology. We will form alliances with more companies and also seek partnerships with governments.
We want to expand our investments in education. Today, we see the private sector entering into these issues to innovate, test and implement these solutions with governments to be another agent of transformation in the country and to gain scale.
And we will also move forward in consolidating this educational journey for delivery drivers from end to end. As a technology company, we will continue to invest in education and technology, from basic level to employability.
We certainly still have many challenges ahead, but we ended the year happy with the results we achieved in such a short time.
