Since 2004, Digital Equalizer has been bridging India’s digital divide by providing and integrating technology into underperforming, under-resourced public schools. With an aim to empower adolescent girls with 21st-century skills such as problem-solving, computational thinking, and innovation, Digital Equalizer is launching the ‘EY Skillbridge Program’ in collaboration with EY Global Delivery Services (EY GDS). As a part of their corporate responsibility program, over the next three years, the project will empower 250,000 girls and over 1000 teachers in 500+ schools, across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Maharashtra, and Delhi NCR.
In alignment with National Education Policy 2020, the project aims to build scientific temperament in students, especially girls, through coding, life skills, career skills, and financial literacy. Breaking the gender stereotype and instituting equity, the project will build the self-confidence and resilience of young girls while supporting them with a pathway to careers.
“Our world is witnessing an era of intense transformation in all areas, whether it is education, global trade and, economy, technology or society. There is an emergent need to focus on holistic development that equips young people, especially girls, to not only make meaningful contributions to society but also prepare them for the vagaries that confront them in the future. We are happy to announce the collaboration with EY GDS Corporate Responsibility program, to prepare young women to be ready for tomorrow,” said Sanyukta Chaturvedi, Director, Digital Equalizer, AIF, & CEO, Digital Equalizer Foundation.
EY Skillbridge Program will indoctrinate a scientific temperament and cognitive thinking in girls from grades 8 and 9 and further their development by instilling the requisite skills at an early age.
Mukul Pachisia, EY GDS Global Operations Leader, said, “Knowledge is not limited to a particular gender. To reap the full potential of technology and innovation, it is important that we encourage girls to excel in financial literacy and STEM skill sets. This will empower them to build a better tomorrow for themselves, their families, and the wider community. We are pleased to partner with the American Indian Foundation and launch the EY Skillbridge program that will focus on enabling young women to realize a strong future. We are happy that through this program, we can touch thousands of lives and accelerate the agenda of making STEM a gender-neutral skill in the future.”
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Working with state governments and education departments, the project will also build the capacity of the key players in the existing education ecosystem to ensure the sustainability of the initiative.
Speaking at the launch Dr Shalini Rajneesh, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Planning, Govt. of Karnataka, said, “American India Foundation is strengthening the youth of Karnataka with its programs in Livelihood and Education. We need to prepare our children and youth for the future and we are confident that AIF’s Digital Equalizer program in partnership with EY GDS will equip our adolescents with 21st-century skills and prepare them for tomorrow.”
The launch event was also attended by Mrs. Sumangala, Director, Department of State Education and Research Training, Karnataka; Dr. Bahuguna Saradhi, OSD to the Commissioner, Board of Intermediate Education, Telangana for Academic Inputs; Mr. Mukund Raj, Project Head UNDP Karnataka; Rumi Mallick Mitra, Director – CSR, EYGDS, and Sheeja Menon, Head – Academics, Digital Equalizer, AIF.
The American India Foundation (AIF) is dedicated to catalyzing social and economic change in India and building a lasting bridge between the United States and India. AIF is committed to improving the lives of India’s underprivileged, with a special focus on women, children, and youth. AIF does this through high-impact interventions in education, health, and livelihoods, because poverty is multidimensional. AIF’s unique value proposition is its broad engagement between communities, civil society, and expertise thereby building a lasting bridge between the United States and India. Working closely with local communities, AIF partners with non-government organizations (NGOs) to develop and test innovative solutions and with governments to create and scale sustainable impact. Founded in 2001, AIF has so far impacted the lives of 12.9 million of India’s poor across 35 states and union territories. Learn more at www.AIF.org.
About Digital Equalizer
Digital Equalizer (DE) envisions a world where all children from under-served communities, especially girls, are prepared for a career and life. The program is bridging India’s digital divide by providing and integrating technology into underperforming, under-resourced public schools, training teachers in techno-pedagogy and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and, Mathematics) methodology, and transforming classrooms into collaborative and interactive places for students to learn while preparing them for success in the 21st-century global economy. Since its inception in 2004, the Program has empowered 5.4 million children with interactive STEM experiences, trained 182,025 teachers in STEM pedagogy and, transformed 24,471 schools across 35 states and union territories of the country.
About EY Global Delivery Services (EY GDS)
EY Global Delivery Services (GDS) is one of the greatest global assets of EY. It is an ever-growing, integrated service delivery center network that provides innovative, scalable and customized business services to EY member firms. This network is a vital element of EY leading–class service capabilities that bring together an industrialized combination of high-quality skilled professionals, automation, and cutting-edge technologies. Present in ten countries (Argentina, China, Hungary, India, Mexico, Poland, the Philippines, Spain and the United Kingdom) and 21 cities, EY GDS works with EY member firms across the globe to build a better working world by helping EY and its clients be agile nimble, and efficient.
About EY
EY exists to build a better working world, helping create long-term value for clients, people and society and build trust in the capital markets. Enabled by data and technology, diverse EY teams in over 150 countries provide trust through assurance and help clients grow, transform and operate.
Working across assurance, consulting, law, strategy, tax and transactions, EY teams ask better questions to find new answers for the complex issues facing our world today. EY refers to the global organization and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Information about how EY collects and uses personal data and a description of the rights individuals have under data protection legislation are available via ey.com/privacy. EY member firms do not practice law where prohibited by local laws. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.
Press release: BWI
