Bulgaria is facing a serious demographic crisis and cannot afford to leave any children behind. Yet over the past few years, all student-level indicators in the country point toward the negative, with the most recent PISA results showing more than half of 15-year-old students in Bulgaria are not meeting grade-level standards in reading, mathematics, and science. This can be attributed to the prevalence of ineffective teaching practices and high attrition rates among novice teachers. With UniCredit's financial support, Teach For Bulgaria is able to provide effective training, support, and high-quality professional development resources for teachers that will help improve their pedagogical practices and overall school leadership.

The project's primary target group is teachers, principals, and other educational professionals across Bulgaria who participate in Teach For Bulgaria's programs. The secondary target group is students in grades 1-12 across the country, taught by the teachers Teach For Bulgaria supports. On an annual basis, the project will reach over 400 teachers directly and over 20,000 students indirectly.

The duration of the joint project of UniCredit Bulbank and the Teach For Bulgaria Foundation is 4 years in the period July 2022 - June 2026. The project is part of the pan-European partnership between UniCredit Foundation and Teach For All and is directly linked to the company's CSR policy to support projects in the field of education. Part of the project is the involvement of the bank's employees in volunteer initiatives aimed at developing financial literacy in students.

During the 2022/2023 school year, 127 young teachers were supported through Teach For Bulgaria's New Way to Teaching program. The program includes a four-week summer training for participants in the program's first year, as well as three full-day trainings during the school year. During the past school year, 25 UniCredit Bulbank employees also visited 11 classrooms in Bulgaria to meet with students and talk about their professional and life experiences to inspire students. In the current school year 2023/2024, UniCredit Bulbank is supporting the training of over 350 teachers from 21 districts in the country. A four-day in-person training for school teams was held in August 2023, and a series of online trainings were held in November and December 2023. 30 UniCredit employees have applied to volunteer to work with students, and 12 meetings have already been held.

Through trained teachers in the 2022/2023 school year, we have reached 8,300 students, and for the 2023/2024 school year, the number of students reached has grown to over 20,000 due to the partnership's focus on Teach For Bulgaria's Model Schools program that supports whole school teams. Over 80% of the teachers in both programs have shown expected progress in their teaching practices as a result of the training received.