Back to school - Proximus assists pupils and students on the path towards a digital and environmentally-friendly world

We wish an excellent start to the new academic year to all pupils and students we come into contact with via our partnerships: whether in the field of education about the digital world or education about environmental protection, two of our main priorities in terms of sustainability.

As part of the Internet Safe & Fun project, some 200 employees from Proximus, trained by Child Focus, hold twice yearly awareness-raising workshops on risk-free Internet use. Every year, over 10,000 pupils from the 5th and 6th year of primary schools take part in these workshops.

Our partners, Bednet and Take Off, make it possible to connect over 1,100 long-term sick children to their class via a videoconferencing system that enables these children to stay in touch with their friends and continue their education.

We are also firmly committed to training job seekers to become digital talents. The employment market is always looking for these profiles. Together with our partners, MolenGeek, 19 and Technobel, we contribute to training some 1,000 new talents every year. Besides technological support, some students are offered internships at Proximus, leading, in the best of cases, to employment. To ensure the success of the digital revolution, we are always hiring splicers and, in collaboration with Technobel, we offer them a unique training path. This is based on the principle of “Dual Learning”, or block release training, and combines theoretical training with advanced practical training.

Our partner GoodPlanet raises pupils’ awareness of environmental protection on a daily basis. Since 2013, GoodPlanet has been organizing the collection of old mobile phones in schools. The devices collected are recycled. Proximus supports this circular economy project by rewarding the schools with refurbished computers as part of a second-life solution. Since the project began, some 160,000 old mobile phones have been collected in over 1,200 schools and over 2,700 computers have been distributed.

More recently, GoodPlanet launched the GoodSchool DigiTool. This tool uses Proximus IoT technologies to enable teachers and their pupils to monitor schools’ energy consumption (electricity, oil and gas), water consumption and waste production. It allows pupils to compare their school with others of a similar size and take action to improve their school’s environmental footprint. Over 500 schools have a profile on the GoodSchool DigiTool.