«Education must not be a luxury good»
The non-profit Educa Swiss Foundation supports young adults in realising their educational plans. According to Managing Director Simon Merki, the foundation is actively committed to ensuring that disadvantaged women and men have the same opportunities as people from a better economic or educational background by providing coaching and loans.
Mr Merki, how many young men and women are currently being supported by Educa Swiss?
We are currently supporting around 400 people on a wide range of training and further education programmes. Whether it's an apprenticeship in a trade, a university degree or a semester abroad - we support all training programmes that lead to a career start. On average, a «manageable» CHF 15,000 per candidate is enough to fill the gap in their budget, successfully complete their training without any financial surprises and make a lasting change to their life situation.
Which people do you typically support?
One group concerns people in secondary education. After initial training, parents and public scholarship organisations are no longer responsible. A second group is in initial education and comes from the middle class. On paper, the scholarship office does not recognise a problem with them, as their parents have a supposedly sufficient income. As a result, they are not entitled to any state funding. The difficulties arise when parents have sufficient financial means but do not want to support a child or their assets are tied up in property, for example. The third group falls through the cracks due to state and social disadvantages, such as an educationally disadvantaged environment or migration background. With coaching and educational loans, we want to ensure that education is not a luxury good.
What are the requirements for participating in Educa Swiss?
Enquiries are currently increasing rapidly. Because of the pandemic?
On the one hand, we attribute the enormous increase in applications to the continuing unstable financial situation among students. On the other hand, more and more people are coming to us who are financially disadvantaged even without the pandemic, and these also exist in Switzerland. And yes, many students are still affected by the coronavirus crisis. They often financed their studies with jobs in areas that have still not fully recovered from the pandemic, such as the event, catering and tourism sectors. However, not only the students, but often also their parents, who are usually the first point of contact for financial support, are still struggling with the long-term consequences of short-time work and job loss.
