5.5 Corporate citizenship The promotion of education can take different forms and We are continuously striving to improve our impact on social pursue different objectives: However, the primary objective cohesion. A major challenge in recent years included unfore- remains consistent. We aim to provide enhanced equal seen events like the global pandemic and the war in Ukraine. access to future opportunities, and to give young people the To help those affected, we launched a charity program in tools to master future challenges. Germany and will continue to roll it out in other countries to better coordinate our measures and offer our people options Coding skills are increasingly relevant to helping people and for help. organizations overcome the challenges of digitalization. As such, Siemens supports a diverse range of programming- Siemens Stiftung: Working for sustainable social oriented learning programs and projects designed for development children. These include UBBU in Portugal, Hacker School in Siemens Stiftung is an internationally operating foundation Germany, and Project Jigyaasa in India. Many of these pro- established by Siemens in 2008 as an independent nonprofit grams are supported by volunteers from Siemens staff. organization. The foundation focuses on three key themes: Access to Essential Services, Connected Societies and Climate In addition to the programs mentioned above, in fiscal 2023 and Sustainability, and adopts a proactive approach to we supported the Innovation4Sustainability bootcamp, a shaping the transformation required by these challenges. By local initiative for more than 30 students from public STEM working with partners in the fields of education, social schools across Egypt. The bootcamp was designed and entrepreneurship, and culture, the foundation reinforces developed with the intention of solving industrial waste collective learning and locally based sustainable structures. management challenges in the electronics sector by empow- The foundation works with the income from its €390 million ering a group of diverse students through a series of endowment as well as additional partner funding in Africa, hands-on trainings, workshops, and ideation using an agile Europe, and Latin America. methodology throughout the bootcamp. Siemens and its employees supported Siemens Stiftung’s In Argentina, we worked with the Siemens Foundation Argen- projects with a number of donation campaigns during the tina to design a 30-hour internationally certified training pro- fiscal year. One example is the COVID-19 Aid Fund, which gram based on Siemens’ 3D design software. The program supported the “STEM Education for Innovation” initiative provides an up-to-date technical education that meets the launched by Siemens Stiftung to advance innovative educa- needs and requirements of the socio-productive sector and tion formats in Latin American countries. To date it has spent aims to enhance employability by helping bridge the digital €0.75 million on projects that included producing 467 digital divide for more than 2,500 students and 250 teachers. and analog instructional media for the entire educational chain and providing more training for more than 245,000 Sustaining communities is key for social STEM teachers and other interested participants in more cohesion than 300 trainings, workshops, and webinars. The fund also Siemens believes that identification with one’s local cultural supported the creation of a multi-stakeholder network that heritage is important for social cohesion. With this objective promotes STEMplus education in 14 mainly Latin American in mind, we support cultural and social activities. The countries as well as the education portal “CREA” (Centro de Siemens Arts Program contributes to this objective with a Recursos Educativos Abiertos), which offers more than 1,700 diverse range of projects: for example, support for the first open educational resources for STEM lessons. Namibian opera designed to promote intercultural under- standing. In addition, we help local communities create safe and stable environments. For instance, in fiscal 2023, we provided accommodations at our company premises in Warsaw to Ukrainian refugees. SIEMENS SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2023 104