For iFood, the education is essential to have a more prosperous and less unequal country — and it makes a difference in preparing new talents for the future of work (especially in the technology sector).
And the best way to achieve this is to provide access to teaching opportunities for children, young people and adults. Therefore, the iFood education strategy focuses on two important audiences: low-income people and those underrepresented in technology, such as women and people of color, explains Luanna Luna, head iFood education program.
To bring these opportunities to more people, iFood has different programs to train, train and improve the employability of these audiences. In this way, the company supports their training and professional journeys, from basic education to the job market, by investing in educational programs.
Result: more than 200 thousand people were impacted by training programs carried out by the company between 2021 and 2022, according to the Socio-environmental Impact Report from iFood.
During the period, the company granted 11,000 scholarships to delivery drivers and underrepresented groups in civil society — and issued 140,000 certificates. To find out how all this happened, find out a little more about iFood's educational programs below.
iFood Education: main programs
iFood Takes Off
On the platform Takes off for delivery people, iFood delivery men and women can take courses related to the future of work, free or with a scholarship. The topics range from technology to financial management, entrepreneurship, emotional intelligence and traffic legislation.
There is also a Takes off special for restaurants iFood partners and others for markets. In this case, the classes are aimed at these types of business.
More than 200,000 partners have already signed up for more than 100 courses offered, which have already issued more than 140,000 certificates.
Tech Power
The focus of this platform is on the employability path. Its objective is to support the training of technology professionals with courses and scholarships in the area.
In its first year of existence, the program received applications from more than 32 thousand people, of which 96% came from underrepresented groups and 80% with a low-income profile.
In this way, around 17 thousand scholarships were granted, accounting for almost 1,000 students graduating.
Furthermore, hackathons, talent bank and other actions designed to generate jobs already total more than 900 people employed, of which 67 went to work at iFood and 17 were delivery men or women.
My High School Diploma
One of Brazil's greatest challenges is the formation of high school: more than half of people over 25 have not completed this stage of education, according to PNAD data (National Household Sample Survey).
To help fill this gap, iFood launched the My Secondary School Diploma program.
In partnership with Descomplica (specialist in online education) and Termine seu Estudos, the company began offering scholarships for delivery men and women to prepare for the 2022 Encceja (National Examination for Certification of Skills for Young People and Adults) This test entitles you to a certificate of completion (or diploma) of primary or secondary education.
In total, 5,314 couriers signed up to win a grant.
What are iFood's goals for education?
iFood's educational programs are aligned with some public commitments signed by the company.
Among them is to train and employ, by 2025, 25 thousand people from underrepresented and low-income groups in technology, contributing to reducing the technological blackout in Brazil.
Another goal is to train more than 5 million people in 5 years for the work of the future and entrepreneurship.
Encouraging basic education is another commitment made, impacting 5 million people in up to 5 years.
The stories of delivery drivers who grew up with education actions
All these numbers translate into unique, particular, individualized achievements in the testimonies of delivery men and women who changed their lives after participating in educational programs offered by iFood.
One such example is the Inajá Morais. She changed careers after taking a technological education, O Let's go AI, an iFood program in partnership with Resilia Educação to train low-income people, preferably women and black people, in development backend.
Inajá, woman, homosexual and black person, met the requirements. The classes provided him with “absurd development” in 2022, in his own words. “When I look back, I see that a year ago I was completely different from what I am now,” he says.
From delivery man to software engineer: an accelerated career path also marked the journey of Daniel Silveira. He became a Foodlover (that's how iFood calls its employees) when he joined the first class of iLab, the company's technology talent accelerator.
“iFood sends some messages to the delivery people, and I received one talking about a technology course”, remembers Daniel.
In turn, through one of iFood's educational programs, the delivery woman Elaine Zulato completed high school 38 years after dropping out. “I'm 55 years old, and I'm proud to be that age and go back to school”, he says. And there's also the case of the delivery man Tiago Francelino, who took courses through iFood Decola and won a cash prize of R$ 20 thousand, drawn by one of iFood's partners in these initiatives.
