The initiative involved over 400 students from Southern Italy in training activities
The first edition of “PinkUP@school”, the project launched in December 2022 by Cervellotik Education and Fondazione CDP to promote gender equality in the tech and start-up world, to support educational choices for adolescents and to combat the phenomenon of early school leaving in Southern Italy, ended with an event at the Chamber of Commerce of Basilicata.
Students from schools in Cammarata (Agrigento), Castrolibero (Cosenza), Foggia, Potenza and Teano (Caserta) had the chance to present their ideas and start-ups to a jury made up of experts from the world of innovation and schools, who made the final selection of the winning teams.
The winner of the "Pink Hack: Hackathon to generate ideas to combat the gender gap" category was the Economy in Pink" team from class 3H at Galileo Galilei Scientific High School in Potenza, among the four selected for the final. The winner of the "Startups in pink: Simulated new concept enterprise" category was the simulated start-up "Walk the world" from class 4CS at Ugo Foscolo High School in Teano, Caserta. The winning teams in both categories will have the opportunity to take part in a mentoring process supported by Fondazione CDP and other project partners. In addition, there were a number of special commendations: for the "Equal genres equal world" team and "A.C.Picchia" team for their business ideas with a strong social impact; for Virginia Rassega for educational and entrepreneurial commitment during the initiative.
The initiative involved over 400 students from high schools in the southern regions (Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Puglia, Sicily and Sardinia) in training activities aimed at exploring the world of female entrepreneurship and issues related to the different nuances that the gender gap implies in our society.
The educational programme of simulated enterprises and "design thinking" for idea generation was also boosted by the contribution of experts from the CDP Women's Association and some representatives of CDP Venture Capital, who created educational and motivational webinars and videos.
In a scenario where women entrepreneurs account for 22.18% of Italian businesses, the project promoted by Cervellotik Education and supported by the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti Group Foundation is an invaluable opportunity to promote gender equality and offer younger generations tangible opportunities for personal and professional development.