The Garanti BBVA Partners initiative, which was launched six years ago, continues its activities this year with a series of meetings with renowned experts. Balvinder Singh, who has extensive experience in directing business, social, cultural, media, and technological projects, was this month’s guest.

The mass closure of schools, colleges and universities in the 2019-2020 academic year proved that not all schools, teachers, students and families were ready to teach and learn online. One in ten households with school-age children have no Internet access, according to the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Spain’s national statistical institute. Due to the pandemic, technological resources and training in using them effectively is more important than ever. The risk surrounding the digital divide is serious.

BBVA’s educational project ‘Aprendemos juntos’ (We learn together) was launched on January 22, 2018 in collaboration with Spanish daily El País. Since then, it has met with one success after another. Over two and half years, more than 200 experts have worked on the ‘Aprendemos Juntos’ initiative, it has accumulated over one billion views, and it has brought together a community of four million people. On May 23rd of this year, ‘Aprendemos Juntos’ went one step further and premiered on the Spanish TV show ‘A mi yo adolescente’ (To My Teenage Self), a nine-episode series on TVE’s channel 2 that looks at what young people think about issues such as friendship, fear and love.

The BBVA Garanti securities unit has received the Turkish Markets Capital Association’s Social Value award for its ground-breaking digital initiative, ‘A Different Race’ delivered together with the foundation for children with autism, Tohum Otizm Vakfı.

In the summer of 2018, Pablo Martín sequestered himself for almost 100 days in a cabin in the Swiss municipality of Montricher. His purpose: to write ‘Memories of an Old Hardhead’. At the time he would never have imagined that the plot of his novel would so closely reflect the reality of 2020.

BBVA invested 77.6 million euros in knowledge, education and culture activities in 2019, about 68 percent of the Group’s social investments. These initiatives, carried out as part of BBVA’s Community Investment Plan, benefitted 7.2 million people.

Many people are taking advantage of their time in quarantine to brush up on their knowledge, and massive online open courses (MOOCs) provide a good alternative. In this article, we describe the major platforms for online education and what they have on offer, both for professional development as well as purely for the fun of learning.

Andrew Wong is the winner of the third edition of the scholarship offered by BBVA in collaboration with The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. The promising youth from the U.S. was selected among culinary students from around the world. He will complete his training at three restaurants led by chefs Mauro Colagreco, Luke Dale-Roberts and Leonor Espinosa.

For the first time — after a decision made by UNESCO in November 2019 — the International Day of Mathematics will be celebrated on March 14, 2020. Surprisingly, until now the ‘science of the sciences’ has not had its own day of formal commemoration; and the date selected is no coincidence.

According to the results of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2019, with 13 out of the world’s top 20 universities, the United States is, yet another year, the world’s academic powerhouse in computer science. Computer Science is a booming tech field. Demand for specialized talent, for example in artificial intelligence, has skyrocketed more than 400 percent since 2010.

BBVA hosted the fourth edition of Women in Cybersecurity Spain (WiCS). WiCS is an initiative dedicated to promoting the role of women in cybersecurity – a field where they represent just 24 percent of the global workforce, according to International Information System Security Certification Consortium (ICS). Four women who are senior managers at BBVA participated in the event, which also served to discuss diversity in general.

30 students from across Spain participated in an educational program at BBVA in collaboration with the Princess of Girona Foundation. The sessions took place in Madrid – at BBVA’s Open Space and at the bank’s corporate headquarters, BBVA City. The students, between the ages of 21 and 30, were selected for their hard work and exemplary nature, and many of them are the first in their familiar to go to college. Bank experts in different professional skills were in charge of teaching the training sessions.

Aspiring chefs from all around the world are encouraged to apply and compete for a chance to work at three of the best restaurants in the world with the launch of the 50 Best BBVA Scholarship 2020, organised by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants with the support of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA). Entries are now open for the initiative, which is in its third year.

‘Learning Together,’ the educational program BBVA delivers in collaboration with Spanish newspaper ‘El País’ and the Santillana Foundation, continues to build on its success. The initiative was kicked-off in January 2018 and aims to promote education, positioning it as one of the basic cornerstones of our society.  In only 18 months of operation, this innovative educational program, which has hosted more than 120 guest experts representing a diverse range of fields, has reached 500 million views.

According to BBVA, knowledge, education, and culture are fundamental drivers for the creation and development of opportunities for individuals. In 2018 alone, the bank invested €75.5 million in these areas, helping 3.8 million people.

For another year, BBVA has been the chosen as the best company to work for in the Spanish banking sector, according to rankings released by the consulting firm, Universum. The bank has been singled out as an exceptional employer by both business students and IT students. The latter also judge the bank to be on the cutting-edge of digital transformation. Close to 31,500 Spanish students representing more than 60 universities were surveyed over the course of the study.

Miriam, Charo, Sara and Vanessa are the role models that were missing. Like many other women, they had to face the difficulties that arise when working in a world that is traditionally dominated by men. And now they serve as examples for many girls and youth who dream of a future where no one stops them just because they are female. In collaboration with the organization Inspiring Girls, BBVA brought these women to one hundred youth to show them that the princess from the fairytale now wants to be a police officer, engineer or pilot.

More than 265 million children are not enrolled in school;  22 percent are of elementary school age. Despite global advances made across a number of fields efforts addressing education need to be redoubled to ensure that no one is left behind. United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 is summarized under the heading: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” BBVA is contributing to this SDG with important international social education programs.

Garanti Bank has launched a new series of training seminars for entrepreneurs. The Garanti Partners Meetup series supports Turkey’s ecosystem of entrepreneurs by providing master classes on relevant topics.

According to the World Economic Forum, 65 percent of children who enroll in primary school today will have jobs that don’t currently exist. This is why on January 25, twenty large corporations announced their commitment to team up through 2022 with the goal of helping young people develop the skills that will make them more employable.  BBVA is among the companies that have signed up to this cause, committing to reach 500,000 young people with its various training programs. The initiative is the Global Alliance for YOUth. Lidia del Pozo, BBVA’s Director of Community Investment Programs, delves into some of the key aspects of this initiative.