Reading Time: < 1 minuteOECD experts Kristine Langenbucher and Thomas Liebig, as well as Anne Kjaer-Bathel, CEO of the ReDI School of Digital Integration, discuss the social economy and refugees on the latest OECD podcast.
Anne Kjær Bathel - (ReDI School)
Anne is CEO and co-founder ReDI School of Digital Integration. She is a 2006 graduate from KaosPilot in Denmark, a hybrid of a business and a design school. From 2006-2009, she worked as a corporate social responsibility consultant. In that capacity, she developed and implemented Samsung Electronics’ award-winning corporate social responsibility strategy for Scandinavia. In July 2010, Anne moved to Japan, where she spent 2 years researching open social innovation and received the prestigious Rotary Peace Fellowship. She wrote her master thesis in Silicon Valley with OpenIDEO. In 2012, she moved to Berlin to set up the Berlin Peace Innovation Lab, which is associated with Stanford University. The lab focuses on how technology is facilitating emerging and measurable social change toward global peace. In 2015, in response to the refugee crises, Anne co-founded ReDI School of Digital Integration, a vocational training program teaching programming and tech skills to refugees and marginalised people. ReDI is currently teaching 2000+ adults and kids per year. 65% of these are women and girls.
Anne was recognised by Edition F as one of "25 Women" revolutionising German industry and by Handelsblatt as "Mutmacher of the Year"(2018). She was awarded Best Female Social Entrepreneur of the year in Germany 2020 and Ashoka Fellow in 2021.
It’s a Match: Reskilling refugees to meet Germany’s growing IT needs
Reading Time: 4 minutesEstablished during Germany’s “refugee crisis” six years ago, the ReDI School of Digital Integration brings together IT professionals to teach coding and basic computer skills to refugees and migrants.