In 2021, the iFood embraced the cause of education for believing that this is the best way to build a more prosperous and less unequal country and to prepare new talents for the future of work.
That year, the company took over three public commitments in education: train and employ 25 thousand people from underrepresented groups in technology; train more than 5 million people for the work of the future and impact 5 million public school students by 2025.
Since then, the iFood launched different programs in the area of education, both for delivery people — such as the quick course platform iFood Takes Off, which has already issued 240,000 certificates to them—as well as to the general public, such as Tech Power, focused on training in technology for people from underrepresented groups in the area, which has already distributed more than 28 thousand scholarships (check the timeline here with all iFood social impact actions in education).
But why is education important for iFood, which is a technology company? No one better than Luanna Luna, head of education at iFood, to answer this question.
In an interview with iFood News, she talks about the company's objectives in the area and the positive impact that these actions want to have on the country.
iFN – Why is the topic of education so important for iFood?
Luanna – There are two roots we need to consider. One of them is that we sought, in line with the movement of many companies, to bring more diversity and equity for the corporate universe.
This involves including more black people, women and people from underrepresented groups both in the company, in society and in places of power. iFood has commitments on this front, but we see that this alone would not be enough to generate a greater transformation in the country.
So, as a major pillar for generating social impact and providing equal opportunities for everyone, the key is education, which is a mechanism for reducing inequalities.
Through it, mainly focused on low-income people and underrepresented groups, we bring more opportunities for these people to enter the market, access places of power and have a better life.
"As a Brazilian company of technology, iFood is at the center of a ecosystem with 200 thousand delivery people and 300 thousand establishments. How can we awaken the potential of all these people around us? For education.”
iFN – Why does iFood take on this more comprehensive role, which involves the whole of society?
Luanna – We want to leave a positive legacy for society. We want to be a company with a positive impact, addressing both environmental and social issues.
In addition to the role we have with our partners, we carried out an in-depth reflection, with experts, on where iFood could best fit in fulfilling its purpose of feeding the future through education.
Based on our history, the strongest thing we have is technology. More than 50% in our company today is made up of tech professionals. The world is experiencing a lack of qualified professionals in the area to meet the demands of companies.
Why, then, not align our know-how — and taking into account that every professional in the future will be a technology professional — with social impact, understanding that there is space in the market, there are people interested in training and having this life transformation ?
Our commitment to train and employ 25 thousand people from underrepresented and/or low-income profiles is a commitment that generates a profound and short-term impact, but which, in itself, does not solve Brazil's problem.
“What could we do, then, to contribute to a more long-term journey? We see it as investing in basic education. Today we make a big effort to attract people to a career in technology because many don’t even know that this path exists.”
The ideal is to work on this from school age. That's why we have projects to invest in improving basic education, which we always do with a partner who is already a specialist and connected to the government.
One of our most relevant initiatives is the Marathon Tech, a technology olympiad to spark the interest of school-age students in a career in tech.
We created this project by co-investing with other companies within the Tech Movement, led by iFood and which brings together several companies to invest R$ 100 million in training young people in the technology area by 2025.
In short, we have a role with our ecosystem, in which we look from end to end, with a vice-presidency just for partners. And there is this part for society.
With the right professionals in the market and people generating income, everyone benefits, we have the talents we need, Brazil's GDP grows. Education is iFood’s social contribution to Brazil.
Our CEO, Fabricio Bloisi, has a belief: he wants to bring about a change in the world, beyond Brazil, and he believes that education is the way to achieve this. He was appointed UN Global Compact education spokesperson, which further encourages and strengthens this agenda in the company and inspires other businesspeople and leaders to invest in education.
iFN – How does iFood support the education of its partners?
Luanna – One of the biggest focuses, also in relation to what society expects from iFood, is on delivery people. We understood that we needed to support our partners in their education journey.
We found, for example, that 28% of them had not completed basic education. To support them, we created the My High School Diploma. In 2022, we initially offered 2,000 scholarships, which later expanded to 5,000.
In January 2023, we had 950 approved results and opened the second class. Now, every delivery man or woman who wants to complete high school will have access to the program, just sign up.
In this context of preparation for new realities there are also restaurants, which saw their business model transformed during the pandemic. Overnight, they had to learn how to sell digitally, work with digital marketing, learn how to use the app itself.
This training for the digital universe requires a series of skills in new tools that also make up this future of the world, which is already present. Looking at our partners, we created the Decola platform, our training program for delivery drivers and restaurants.
In April 2021, we began this content production journey so that iFood partners can work with us, generate more income and take advantage of all growth opportunities.
There are cases of restaurants that went through a sales funnel course and, from R$ 300, went on to sell R$ 4,000 per month, in addition to opening a second unit and now selling R$ 700 in this new store. It is a very quick income generation tool.
iFN – In 2022, iFood joined other companies, in the Tech Movement, to invest in education. How important is this movement?
Luanna – The idea is for iFood to be this curative vehicle for the market and to be able to establish bridges. Let everyone invest where they are most interested, but let us all be able to see this large map of gaps to better articulate the necessary investments, from basic education to employability, so that Brazil can be a great technological power.
“There is no way out of the technology talent gap other than this union between companies. The Tech Movement and Tech Marathon make this union tangible. One of the pillars of iFood is networking, to actually generate this mobilization and articulation between all actors.”
In relation to the Tech Movement, it is also important to emphasize that, to participate, you do not need to be a tech company, but rather a company committed to the idea of making Brazil a technological powerhouse.
Today, 30 companies are part of the movement. We want to climb a lot this year. There are two main projects of the movement, our flagships: Marathon Tech, in the wake, a program that will have its second edition in August this year, and Potência Tech, for training and employability in the technology area. Potência Tech was born at iFood and today Movimento Tech co-invests in the project.
