Intel's European CSR directions for 2012
By Dr. Thomas Osburg, Director Europe - Corporate Affairs for Intel
We've had some great successes with our CSR activities in Europe in 2010 and 2011 and have continued our focus on supporting educators and young people in unlocking great ideas that can become tomorrow's businesses. Here's a short animated summary of how our programs connect together and our successes in 2011:
I wanted to take the opportunity of sharing this year's initiatives with you to also outline some of our directions for the year ahead:
1. We'll help teachers integrate leading-edge technologies into teaching and learning, make the Intel Teach program more customisable and launch it in up to five new European countries
Over the last decade, 1.3 million European teachers have benefitted from the Intel Teach program and globally, we celebrated the milestone of having trained 10 million teachers in September 2011.
We plan to extend the programme to up to five new European markets but importantly, we're also working hard to make it even more customisable for regional and local curricula. This is very important because the programme helps teachers to integrate ICT skills into their day-to-day classroom activities and therefore must relate to local educational needs. A recent example of this approach is Bulgaria, where we launched this new platform in November 2011.
In addition, we want to be even more of a partner for teachers as they develop their practice. Creating this level of granular support will mean we can integrate better with government programmes and provide more support for teachers' development as they use technology to make learners more curious about the world.
2. We'll expand our support for entrepreneurialism to younger learners
Future economic growth is dependent upon developing talented entrepreneurs who can turn good ideas into new businesses. This is vitally important as small and medium sized businesses represent the large majority of all enterprises in the EU and account for nearly 100 million jobs.
We've created entrepreneurship programmes that are integrated throughout our higher education curricula through business plan competitions like the Intel Global Challenge. In addition, we plan to support learners' development even sooner in their school careers by focussing on Entrepreneurship Curricula for Schools that nurture the critical thinking and business skills amongst school student and ultimately, support potential job creation. We're already actively engaged with governments and non-profit organisations like 'Junior Achievement - Young Enterprise' to customise existing programs and align our programs to extend our reach.
We're also working with organisations like The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship to put social entrepreneurship front-and-centre so that young people can develop solutions to problems that relate to their communities.
3. We'll maintain our focus on math and science education as the key foundation to the innovation capacity of economies
The Intel International Science & Engineering Fair remains our flagship program here. Also, we'll significantly increase the number of attendees at the Intel Educator Academy EMEA in 2012 compared to the Intel Educator Academy EMEA event in London in 2011, which we held alongside the Big Bang science and engineering fair.
Furthering math, science, engineering and technology education is a priority for Intel and is highly dependent upon working with representatives from across the region. Events such as the Intel Educator Academy allow teachers and policymakers from EMEA to exchange ideas and work towards common goals. It's also important for Intel because being part of discussions from the outset helps us develop our programmes in ways that support our communities.
4. We'll increase our support for skills-based volunteering
Intel has a long tradition in volunteer work that supports the communities in which we operate. In 2011 alone, approx. 30% - 40% of Intel's European employees gave their time to local causes.
While improving local communities by renovating public spaces is important, we're focusing in 2012 on increasing our skills-based volunteering so our employees can even add more value. We're focused on this because it's often our employees' professional skills that are of most value and skills-based volunteering also strengthens the connection between our employees and the projects they work with.
5. We'll make our CSR reporting more accessible and transparent
Giving insights into our CSR programs is important and we increased our efforts to make the information we report relevant and accessible through regional reporting and publishing local language documents. Starting last year for example, our European report is now translated into seven languages.
Beyond CSR reporting, we're also looking at increasing awareness of our programs amongst the general public. To do this, we are engaging in a true dialogue with the communities we serve in order to make sure we offer the types of support that they need.
So, having drawn this line in the sand, keep us honest by checking back to the Intel Europe Newsroom over the coming months to look for updates on our programs! We're already making great strides in the above areas, so I'm confident next year's CSR report will over these points and more.