Education and Volunteering

Sharing our passion for science

At the same time, it is an opportunity for us to broaden our own recruitment diversity, address potential skill shortages, showcase ST as an exciting, caring and attractive place to work, promote our products and our brand, and ensure our business is ready for the future.

In 2019 our worldwide STEM taskforce, established at the end of 2018, worked to build a more structured program that can be implemented at all our sites. I 103-2 I

Major achievements include:

• sharing best practices to encourage sites to do more and engage volunteers
• defining priorities and developing site guidelines
• developing a ‘STEM your way’ label to raise awareness of the program
• establishing KPIs to measure our performance

Number of STEM initiatives

Dr. Masrullizam Mat Ibrahim

Deputy Dean (Academic) Associate Professor, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM)

To succeed in today’s information-based and highly technological society, students need to develop their capabilities in STEM to levels far beyond what was necessary in the past. In the STEM innovation competition, students were required to design an innovative Internet of Things (IoT) application applying ST’s STM32 technology. The commitment and technical support provided by STMicroelectronics has been very beneficial for the students and contributes to the ecosystem of STEM education activities in Malaysia.”

We defined a number of complementary priorities for the program designed to address different audiences and achieve different outcomes. These include:

• organizing dedicated visits to our sites for students and teachers
• sending STEM ambassadors – ST volunteers – into classrooms or to events to meet students and talk about their work, their studies and their careers
• organizing competitions, such as robotics and ST product-based competitions
• arranging specific events to engage more girls in science
• partnering with educational institutions, engineering schools and universities to promote links with the industry through seminars, courses and curriculum-based activities involving ST technologies and products
• setting up projects in schools and innovation hubs, such as fab labs, to build long-term partnerships
• bringing students together at engineering camps to share ideas and create innovative applications
• supporting activities in primary schools, such as introduction to coding sessions

Some of the new STEM activities we introduced in 2019 include:

• Our Muar site (Malaysia) established a STEM innovation competition for students, in collaboration with the Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) (see quote).
• In Italy, several ST sites organized specific events to engage girls in science (see Focus).
• In France, most ST sites were involved in a series of events promoting French industry across the country, called the ‘French Fab Tour’ and the ‘Extraordinary Factory’. This was a unique opportunity to raise awareness of ST and our activities among potential future talent. For more information, see www.lafrenchfab.fr/tournee.

STEM is for everyone

FOCUS

STEM is for girls and boys

STEM careers are available to girls and boys in equal measure. This is the message promoted by our Italian sites through two major events in 2019, each involving about 100 students.

In March, ST Catania held an inspirational meeting in collaboration with the Institute of Microelectronics and Microsystems of the Italian National Research Council and the Galileo Galilei Scientific High School. Three women from ST Catania shared their professional and personal experience, encouraging girls to follow their dreams and take up a stimulating and rewarding scientific career.

In November, ST Agrate and Castelletto organized a ‘STEM Who?’ event involving boys and girls aged 14, the age at which students choose their higher studies in Italy. During a panel session, the students played the role of interviewers asking questions to five women working in STEM roles. There were also demonstrations and the opportunity to chat with 20 female and four male ST colleagues covering almost all scientific roles in the Company, along with a researcher from the Italian National Research Council (CNR).

Overall achievements

We have been using the London Benchmarking Group methodology since 2012. This is a global standard to measure and manage corporate community investment. I 103-3 I

In 2019, we conducted 389 community initiatives worldwide at 33 of our sites and in 19 countries. This included contributing:

• 145,498 hours of company time, representing 66% of our total community investment
• US$1.8 million in cash donations

In addition to our STEM-related activities, we continue to contribute in other fields in line with our sustainability strategy, such as our support for startups, organizing blood donations, beach cleaning and sponsoring local charities.

Education and innovation, as reflected by the ‘STEM your way’ program, continue to be the main focus of our activities. 83% of our initiatives support education, with 43% linked to innovation. I 103-3 I

Domains of involvement⁽¹⁾

ST Foundation

The ST Foundation develops and sponsors projects that employ technology to promote human progress and sustainable development of less privileged communities around the world.

Digital Unify is the main program of the ST Foundation. It aims to spread the benefits of digital technology by providing free-of-charge equipment and training in basic computer skills. Since its inception in 2003, it has trained nearly 730,000 people in 26 countries. In 2019, over 100,000 students took part in basic computer training and ‘Tablets for Kids’ classes alone. SDG 4.3

In 2019, the ST Foundation strengthened its program to target less privileged populations in countries where we operate, such as migrants and the elderly, while maintaining the current level of activity in other geographical locations.

To address the evolving needs of specific groups, the ST Foundation developed new learning paths such as the tablet for seniors and computer basics classes for visually impaired people.

ST provided a wide range of support to the Foundation in 2019, including:

• a cash donation of US$500,000
• electronics and IT equipment donations
• volunteering time from employees involved in the Digital Unify program as trainers
• support from Corporate External Communications to produce the Foundation’s activity report for external stakeholders and to maintain the website

In 2019, ST volunteers at our Muar site (Malaysia) helped to customize the ‘Tablets for Kids’ training material to make the course available to the local community. The material was adapted to the local context so that the course would be effective and tailored to the children’s culture.

ST volunteers at our Agrate site (Italy) worked closely with our Foundation to organize the fourth edition of the Energy Run in September 2019. Thanks to the high level of public participation and support from sponsors, the event raised more than US$13,000 in funds to support the ST Foundation’s ongoing activities in Italy.

For more information on the ST Foundation, see www.stfoundation.org.

Contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals

Our commitments and programs related to Education and Volunteering as described above contribute to:

SDG 4.3 – Ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university.