Wise and the next generation of tech.
We’re committed to helping the next gen of tech talent thrive.
That starts in Estonia, home to our biggest office where some of the world’s best tech talent work together.
Estonia has a unique opportunity to set a global standard as the digital society of the future. We want to help make sure Estonia continues to achieve that vision.
Solving challenges in the education system.
"Estonia ranks high in PISA ranking scores, but if you dig deeper you see quite a few cracks. The teachers in Estonia are currently the oldest in OECD countries and younger generations aren’t applying to be teachers. For some reason society doesn’t seem to attribute the credit to teachers that they deserve."
Wise Co-founder Taavet Hinrikus explains why he’s so passionate about improving schooling in Estonia.
What we're up to in-house?
Hackathons
Inspiring tech classes
To support schools and teachers in the pandemic's remote learning setup, Wise employees decided to share their tech knowledge with students via online video classes.
Check out the classes in Estonian here and read the blog here.
Providing the tools
Wise has donated over a hundred laptops through Igale koolilapsele arvuti (“Computer to every school child”) to families in need and a number of headsets, monitors and other equipment to local schools, supporting teachers and students.
We have also donated tech equipment to local coding schools and supported programming summer camp Enter Bootcamp with laptops.
Wise 20 Under 20
Wise is searching for the 20 most talented young entrepreneurs across Europe. We want to make sure that the next generation of founders can thrive and we’re committed to supporting them in making their business global.
Since 2021, in addition to the £25,000 overall prize money and expert mentoring, we give out special awards to an outstanding EdTech, GreenTech and social enterprise. Find out more here.
Collaborating with exciting projects
Headmaster Internship: Innovating school management
For the past 3 years, we've been part of an exciting development programme kicked off by Good Deed Education Fund in partnership with Fontes and Tallinn Education Department, where local school headmasters do an internship in innovative companies to learn from their experience.
What were the key learnings from this year? Check out the interview with the headmaster Rando Kuustik and his Wise mentor Erik Kaju here.
JA: Motivating future entrepreneurs
We've partnered up with Junior Achievement Estonia, adding study materials to their entrepreneurship course. The materials engage students' creativity and analytical thinking in solving real-life problems and encourage the use of tech solutions. As part of the programme, mentors from Wise support students with practical feedback and advice.
At JA's annual Student Company Fair, and Student Company Competition we present the Wise Innovation Award for the most innovative student company and nominate one team with the Wise Teamwork award.
ASÕP: Supporting teachers
In the distance learning situation our teachers needed all the support they could get. Post-pandemic, the shortage of teachers, especially to substitute one or a few classes remains high. In collaboration with ASÕP substitute teachers programme, Wisers can sign up to go and teach a class in a local school.
Taavet kicked off the substitute classes programme by giving English to 5th and 6th graders in Randvere school near Tallinn.
Mentoring at Hüppelaud
For the past years, Wise has been supporting the young inventors Hüppelaud summer school through exciting workshops and practical mentoring.
Hüppelaud brings together teens across Estonia to invent, build and create new products and solutions, with a specific focus each year, such as on digital learning tools. Find out more here and have a listen on Äripäev radio in Estonian here.
Closing the IT-skills gap
We partnered with Tartu University to research the tech skills gap, and how to fix it. Today 29.8% of students who take up IT subjects at uni drop out after their first year.
The research was carried out between Sept 2018 and April 2019 and the full report can be found in Estonian here and in English here.
Company visits
Wise is opening its doors to local schools, inviting kids to get a glimpse of the startup vibe, learn about the varied career paths tech education can lead to, and dive into product building by participating in a group workshop.
Providing a forum for discussion
Together with Eesti 2.0, Wise is organizing discussion mornings to raise awareness around STEAM education issues in Estonia.
In August 2019, we discussed the future of tech education at the annual Opinion Festival.
School visits
Our Wisers visit schools on a regular basis to share with students the magic of the tech sector and show through practical examples the importance of skills such as team work, analytical thinking, creative problem solving and giving and receiving feedback.
Would you like to invite someone from Wise to your school? Get in touch here.
We're part of the community
Startup Week Tallinn
Wise hosted Startup Week's Future Founders track kick-off event. With the help of experienced mentors, teens participated in a product workshop and found ways how tech can solve today's burning social issues.
Read more about why future founders want to learn outside the traditional classroom here and check out the event gallery here.
sTARTUp Day
Wise partnered up with sTARTUp Day 2020 in Tartu, making sure the festival's Youth Area had an exciting programme, packed with hands-on workshops and motivating talks.
Read more about how to teach tech to youngsters in Estonian here and in English here.
kood/Jõhvi: Next level tech education
We're supporting the new innovative coding school kood/Jõhvi, aiming to reduce software developers shortage in Estonia. The school welcomes students from all backgrounds and is looking for ways to attract more women to study coding.
We are excited to be part of the school's everyday life through talks, hackathons and mentoring, and we’re collaborating with the school to add a fintech track to its study programme. Read more from Taavet's blog here.
Enter Bootcamp
Our Wisers mentor talk and run workshops at events such as Enter Bootcamp programming camp - organised by high school teens and for high school teens! Interested in practical tips and workshops on teamwork, the importance of feedback and cross-team collaboration when building products? Hit us up!
Good Deed Education Fund
Taavet and Bolt co-founder Martin Villig launched a fund to provide seed capital for innovative initiatives in Estonian education.
Education Fun 1.0 - In 2019-2021, the fund contributed 1 million euros to impactful educational projects. Read more about the impact of the first three years here.
Education Fund 2.0 - Launched in 2022, the fund plans to further contribute 2 million euros to initiatives and projects in 2022-2024, helping to bring the education in Estonia to the next level. Up to 5% of the fund will support initiatives helping children who have fled the Ukrainian war to continue their education in Estonia.
The fund is backed by around 40 Estonian entrepreneurs and companies, including Wise, Bolt, Veriff and Pipedrive.
Only 7% of young people in Estonia wish to study tech-related subjects.
