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Key Partners
Status
Start year of the initiative:
2008 – still ongoing.
Next steps of initiative:
Regional expansion: STEM Brazil will be expanding two additional states: Rio Grande do Sul and Rio de Janeiro. New partnerships with other NGOs will be implemented to support this expansion.
Impact
Country(ies) of impact:
Brazil
Number of people impacted annually:
In five years, an average of 400 teachers per year (40 secondary schools impacting 16,000 students annually). In 2014, STEM Brazil has impacted on: 121 full-time public schools, 1,500 teachers and 90,000 students in São Paulo; 28 public schools, 112 teachers and 20,000 students in Rio Grande do Sul. In 2015, in additional to the previous numbers, Worldfund expects to impact 37 schools, 250 teachers and 20,000 students in Rio de Janeiro.
Time to intended impact:
Less than 2 years
Metrics:
- Student grades during high school
- Performance on school exams
- Performance on state/national tests
- Graduation rates, compared to the local average
- Number of students in the programme who go on to higher studies, compared to the local average
Benefit to organization:
- Direct benefit to organization: Donations to Worldfund’s STEM Brazil programme and the employee engagement (skills-based volunteering) programme both provide shareholder recognition for positive participation in corporate social responsibility.
- Indirect benefit to organization: Good reputation, publicity for Worldfund.
Key Partners
Status
Start year of the initiative:
2008 – still ongoing.
Next steps of initiative:
Regional expansion: STEM Brazil will be expanding two additional states: Rio Grande do Sul and Rio de Janeiro. New partnerships with other NGOs will be implemented to support this expansion.
Impact
Country(ies) of impact:
Brazil
Number of people impacted annually:
In five years, an average of 400 teachers per year (40 secondary schools impacting 16,000 students annually). In 2014, STEM Brazil has impacted on: 121 full-time public schools, 1,500 teachers and 90,000 students in São Paulo; 28 public schools, 112 teachers and 20,000 students in Rio Grande do Sul. In 2015, in additional to the previous numbers, Worldfund expects to impact 37 schools, 250 teachers and 20,000 students in Rio de Janeiro.
Time to intended impact:
Less than 2 years
Metrics:
- Student grades during high school
- Performance on school exams
- Performance on state/national tests
- Graduation rates, compared to the local average
- Number of students in the programme who go on to higher studies, compared to the local average
Benefit to organization:
- Direct benefit to organization: Donations to Worldfund’s STEM Brazil programme and the employee engagement (skills-based volunteering) programme both provide shareholder recognition for positive participation in corporate social responsibility.
- Indirect benefit to organization: Good reputation, publicity for Worldfund.
Global Education Initiative – STEM Brazil Learning Programme
Submitted by Credit Suisse
Objective
To improve the quality and delivery of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education in Brazil.
Overview and Main Activities
As part of the Global Education Initiative, Credit Suisse has partnered with Worldfund Brazil to raise the relevance of education and train science, engineering, technology and mathematics (STEM) teachers to improve the quality of STEM education in Brazil’s high schools.
Worldfund Brazil trains STEM teachers in interactive and project-based learning methodologies that focus on real-world problems and challenges as points of departure for learning science and math. Problems include pollution, health life problems, toxic waste, urban mobility etc. As a result, for the past couple of years, the students impacted were able to create several science research projects. These include: ethanol extraction from organic waste generated by street fairs that sell fruits and vegetables; wind energy harvested for lighting public roads, using wind generated by cars; developing a cane that uses a GPS and interactive bus stops for the visually impaired. Some of the projects have even been nominated for awards at regional, national and international science fairs in 2013 and 2014.
Training takes place in four subject areas: physics, chemistry, biology and math, and is complemented by workplace skills training tailored to teachers. Skills include managing information, problem-solving, communicating and networking. With newly gained skills, teachers are then able to enliven the state-mandated science and math curriculum.
Credit Suisse supports the training by actively involving Credit Suisse employees as role models in the initiative. On an annual basis, Credit Suisse employees travel to Brazil for one week and present to students their own career paths into finance, showcasing how important STEM subjects were for their careers and personal lives.
To execute the STEM Brazil Learning Programme, Worldfund Brazil works with local governments and schools. Credit Suisse provides support in terms of a combination of grant funding and sharing of expertise through employee skills-based volunteering.
Success Factors and Challenges
Most critical success factors:
- Curriculum material linked to specific sectors of the Brazilian economy where technical jobs are in great supply
- Training STEM teachers and improving their teaching method
- One-on-one training to equip teachers with interactive teaching techniques and learning modules that emphasize critical thinking
- Extracurricular activities that complement the state curriculum requirements to intensify math and science learning
- Creating awareness to students highlighting specific career options related to math, science and engineering
Main challenges:
- Local (state) government commitment in the ever-changing political landscape
- Lack of objective and effective public policies making the pre-execution process long and bureaucratic
- Little space in the media to share best practices and showcase the initiative’s successes
- Overcoming a popular mentality that public school students are not capable of conducting high-level, technical experiments
Recommendations for Others
Since Brazil’s Education Department guarantees that every state has the right to adapt the national core curriculum to their cultural specificities, it is difficult to maintain a standardized execution and to get uniform quality results. It is important to maintain flexibility throughout the initial government negotiation process and make necessary programme adjustments during the execution of the project as the cultural specificities reveal themselves. Tailoring the programme to each state’s needs is challenging, but is key to successful results and the satisfaction of all stakeholders.
Replicability and Scalability
How easily could other organizations implement this initiative?
Difficult: Organizations must conduct a study of the official state curriculum; build a partnership with the local government to invite teacher participation and provide authorization for materials and trainers; and find donors to sponsor costs.
How easily can this initiative be expanded to include a larger number of participants?
Easy: The programme is implemented in partnership with state education authorities that are very eager to have the programme in their schools.
About the Organization
Website: www.credit-suisse.com
Sector: Banking and Capital Markets
Size (number of employees): 10,000-50,000
Headquarters: Zürich, Switzerland