Education: 2008 in Review

In the year under review, Deutsche Bank focused its educational programs and those of its foundations more strongly on its core objectives: to create more equality of opportunity, improve economics education, and help people broaden their experience and facilitate the path to integration through cultural education and the development of intercultural communication.

Our educational initiatives in emerging countries have helped more than 60,000 children acquire the basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic. But we are also active in industrial nations. Our scholarships, competitions, and other initiatives open the door to education to more than 100,000 children and young people, giving them a better chance of receiving job training. Most of these projects involve close cooperation with external partners or other foundations.

In Germany, 100 Deutsche Bank employees help about 1,200 students acquire a practical understanding of finance. In several schools of New York´s underprivileged neighborhoods, the “Teachers as Leaders” project supports teacher interns from similar ethnic backgrounds as their students to act as role models and create a thirst for knowledge through peer acceptance. In 2008, about 10,000 children from 35 schools in the U.K. took part in the “Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank” initiative, which provides them with a unique learning experience.

What we have learned

Although Deutsche Bank and its foundations are involved in a number of different educational initiatives and frequently act as a social catalyst in this role, their involvement is still relatively unknown to the public. A comprehensive review of our current commitments has also highlighted the need to make adjustments in certain areas of our educational program if we are to live up to our claim of “Building social capital.” We have observed, however, that the choice of our project partners is sometimes at odds with our own objectives. Consequently, we will review all existing programs with partners and then decide which to continue. At the same time we will build new networks in selected fields.

Our goals for the future

In 2009, we intend to play a more prominent role in the projects we support and become more involved in their organization. We will focus more specifically on fostering the intellectual and intercultural skills of people with minimal access to education, and on supporting the general financial education of young people. As a global enterprise, we need to develop this potential. We also aim to heighten public awareness of Deutsche Bank as a responsible corporate citizen that champions greater equality of opportunity and promotes entrepreneurial leadership. In addition, we aim to draw more attention to the Digital Concert Hall internationally and to assist people around the world who are interested in our experience with Zukunft@BPhil.