Management training and social engagement come together to combat school dropout and promote access to education
POLIMI Graduate School of Management announces the start of a collaboration with Fondazione Sicomoro per l’Istruzione (ETS) – the Sicomoro Foundation, a non-profit organisation active in the field of educational inclusion. The collaboration provides direct support for the Foundation's activities: for each student enrolled in the Full-Time MBA, POLIMI GSoM will donate an economic contribution to the Sicomoro Foundation. This contribution will support the Scuola della Seconda Opportunità – the Second Chance School, a Foundation project aimed at young people at risk of dropping out of school, which offers them a path to obtaining a secondary school diploma and reintegrating into training courses.
POLIMI Graduate School of Management students will also have the opportunity to contribute personally by making voluntary donations to the Foundation; these amounts will be doubled by the School, strengthening the model of shared participation and collective responsibility. This initiative reflects the approach promoted by POLIMI GSoM in the New-Generation MBA, which is geared towards training leaders who are aware of the impact of their choices and capable of integrating social responsibility, sustainability and value creation into business and leadership decisions.
“Our collaboration with the Sicomoro Foundation and support for the Second Chance School have a particularly significant value for POLIMI Graduate School of Management, because they enable us to offer concrete educational opportunities to young people in vulnerable situations and to intervene directly against school dropout,” noted Federico Frattini, Dean of POLIMI Graduate School of Management. “This initiative fully reflects the purpose of our School, which is focused on generating a positive and lasting impact on society through management training. I thank our students and all those who choose to support the project: their contribution strengthens a shared commitment to making education increasingly accessible and inclusive.”
"The collaboration with POLIMI Graduate School of Management represents a particularly significant step for the Sicomoro Foundation," said Simone Poli, President of the Sicomoro Foundation. “In a context where quality and access to education are increasingly crucial to social cohesion, initiatives of this kind help build concrete alliances between excellent training and local educational engagement. This is a significant recognition of the Second Chance School model, developed to combat school dropout and educational inequalities through structured re-entry programmes. The direct involvement of the School’s students introduces an element of co-responsibility that reinforces the initiative’s impact: the resources generated will help to expand and consolidate the educational offer, accompanying the young people on a journey of academic reactivation and progressively rebuilding their confidence in their own abilities.”
The Foundation and its educational project: the Second Chance School
The Sicomoro Foundation for Education (ETS), which has been active in the city of Milan for over 20 years, promotes and supports education initiatives, with particular attention being placed on situations of educational vulnerability. Its Second Chance School offers an annual educational course designed for the attainment of a middle school diploma, aimed at students between 13 and 16 years of age who are enrolled in lower secondary schools and who have been identified by their institutions as having failed to complete their studies or of being at high risk of dropping out.
The objective is to get the students back to school by restoring their self-esteem and motivation to learn, and then to guide them towards higher education through dedicated tutoring activities and agreements with upper secondary schools. The project operates with three classes in two locations within state schools and provides 25 hours of teaching per week during school hours, with teachers seconded from the Local School Office, the support of professional educators and the psycho-pedagogical supervision of the Sicomoro Foundation.
The initiative is carried out in agreement with the Territorial School Office and the Municipality of Milan, and in collaboration with the local comprehensive schools that have signed specific protocols of understanding. Since its inception, the Second Chance School has welcomed over 540 students, guiding them through secondary school and onwards through subsequent study paths.
From today, the Sicomoro Foundation will also be able to count on the support of POLIMI Graduate School of Management and its students as they help to concretely strengthen the educational opportunities offered to young people in vulnerable situations.