Our claim "Give youth a chance" is more than a simple statement for us - it is a goal we fill with life and which we feel committed to. And this goal is reflected in all our thoughts and actions.
The foundation offers ambitious and talented young people from economically precarious backgrounds new perspectives by providing them with a high-quality technical education. This is how they get the chance to lead their lives in a self-determined way and positively shape their future.
The foundation offers adolescents and young adults the necessary resources and access to a technical education in careers where qualified personnel are needed. In India and Costa Rica (until June 2024 also in Nicaragua), the Samuel Foundation provides education in its own centres with high quality standards and in close cooperation with authorities and companies.
Our training approach is holistic: technical skill training is supplemented by a set of general education subjects including a foreign language, as well as comprehensive personality training that makes our students fit for the modern working world.
At the end of their technical education, our students put their knowledge to the test during an apprenticeship period.
However, the foundation's concept does not end here. We actively place our graduates in qualified employment. And we succeed in almost all cases – last but not least thanks to the foundation's large cooperation network.
Our graduates leave our centres for technical education as motivated and self-confident people who have completely new perspectives for their future lives.
The Hedwig and Robert Samuel Foundation was established in 1932 by the merchant couple from Düsseldorf of the same name. It is a non-profit foundation under private law which focuses on supporting economically disadvantaged young people in the area of technical education.
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Robert Samuel was born in Düsseldorf in 1871 as the son of a merchant family that had moved from Heidelberg to Düsseldorf in the mid-19th century and enjoyed success in the tobacco trading business. He followed in his father's footsteps and in 1900 moved his uncle's tobacco shop into the building on Königsallee 14 / Blumenstraße 3, which at the time belonged to the city of Düsseldorf. He later acquired the property and in 1911 had the office and commercial building named Hohenzollernhaus built on it.
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According to the statutes, the Board of Directors is the only official body of the Samuel Foundation and thus the supreme supervisory board of its activities at the head office as well as in the international branches.
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The thinking, strategic planning and concrete actions of the Hedwig and Robert Samuel Foundation are based on the following guiding principles.
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These are your contact persons at our head office in Düsseldorf and in our branches in Costa Rica, India, and Nicaragua.
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We are commited to transparency - learn more about our work, e.g. in our annual reports, which the foundation publishes regularly.
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Are you interested in a challenging job in a non-profit organisation within the educational sector?
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June 3rd 1932 is the official birthday of the Hedwig and Robert Samuel Foundation. On this day, the Prussian State Ministry approved the establishment of the foundation on the basis of the submitted founding deed and foundation statutes, thereby completing the last necessary formal act.
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