Deloitte expands ‘Deloitte21’ initiative to enhance education, skills, and long-term prospects for underserved youth globally

* Deloitte aims to contribute US$100 million of support to education and skills by 2014
* Deloitte21 competition launched to provide financial support to promising projects

London - Deloitte today stepped up Deloitte21, its global education and skills initiative focused on preparing underserved young people for success in the 21st-century economy, by announcing two new initiatives: the Deloitte21 Fellows, and the Deloitte21 Competition.

Deloitte21 aims to support new and existing initiatives that develop the skills young people need - leadership, ethics, problem solving, and global awareness - to meet this century’s most pressing challenges. By 2014, Deloitte21 aims to contribute $100 million worth of financial, volunteering, and pro bono support to 50 innovative community programs, providing new opportunities for underserved young people.

Leading the implementation of these initiatives on the ground will be the Deloitte21 Fellows, a worldwide network of high-performing Deloitte professionals who will drive volunteerism within their member firms to advance Deloitte21’s impact. The projects supported include: encouraging participation in China’s national and regional community programs; providing work readiness and job skills training to immigrant youth in Finland; helping College Summit, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing the college enrollment rate of low-income students across the U.S., strengthen its financial management capabilities; and offering business skills and education to young women seeking to create self-sustaining businesses in African countries such as Malawi, Zambia, and Namibia through the MicroLoan Foundation.

John Connolly, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Chairman of the Board commented, “Education and skills create the clearest path to independence for our world’s underserved youth, and the greatest potential to succeed in their communities. Through Deloitte21, Deloitte professionals will apply their intellectual capital, professional skills, and experience to support the development of the next generation of entrepreneurs and leaders.”

The Deloitte21 Competition will encourage Deloitte member firms to identify local programs whose impact and scale will be significantly enhanced with additional financial support. Deloitte member firms will nominate programs with which they are working hand-in-hand, and four such promising programs will be selected to receive funding – one of US$150,000 and three of US$50,000 each.

Connolly added: “We aren’t just focused on helping a few individuals. We are working with education leaders, including serving as a steering board member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Education Initiative, on integrating skills development into regional and local education systems in order to influence significant and sustainable change.”

Deloitte has a longstanding commitment to education and skills-building. In the United Kingdom, the Deloitte Employability Initiative has grown from training 35 students in 2001-2002 to 6,000 students in 2009-2010, and, with a train-the-teacher model, aims to support 10,000 students in 2012-2013. Another example is eLearning for Kids, founded by a DTT director from the Netherlands in 2005, which provides free online and CD-ROM-based educational software used by more than 6 million children in 190 countries.

Connolly concluded: “We are inspired by the success we are already experiencing in our measurable Deloitte21 programs. And with the support and initiative of the Deloitte member firm network, we are confident we can make a real difference in the lives of these students, and to our communities.”

To learn more about the Deloitte21 program, Fellows, and initiatives around the world, please visit: www.deloitte.com/deloitte21

Note: As used in this release, Deloitte refers to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and its member firms.

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