Who’s Behind 42? — Inés Temes Fuertes, Fundación Telefónica
Introducing our brand new “Who’s Behind 42” series! Every month, we will put one of 42’s many campuses’ main sponsor in the spotlight, to understand better what drove them to open a 42 campus and why they did so. We’re kicking off this format today with this piece on Fundación Telefónica, 42’s main sponsor in Spain.
Back in 2019, Fundación Telefónica and 42 partnered up for the first time to open 42 Madrid. Five years down the line, and an additional three campuses later, we sat down with Inés Temes Fuertes, director of employability and innovative education at Fundación Telefónica, to discuss how and why that partnership came into being.
Could you please briefly introduce yourself and tell us more about your professional background?
My name is Inés Temes. I’ve worked at Telefónica for almost fifteen years in the field of education and technology, before joining the foundation and becoming the head of the four 42 campuses in Spain. I am passionate about education and how technology contributes to the learning processes. I am also a lecturer at the University Camilo José Cela here in Madrid, where I’m director of intrapreneurships.
Can you tell us more about Fundación Telefónica?
Fundación Telefónica is a center for innovation, created by Telefónica, one of the world’s largest telecommunications company. We operate in forty-five different countries around the world with a very clear mission: “to make the world more human by promoting inclusive digital development.”
We have a global intervention model, which is developed mainly through local foundations in Latin America and in Spain. We also adapt all the projects to the local context in each territory, keeping our mission in mind all the while.
How did people at Fundación Telefónica first become interested in 42?
At Fundación Telefónica, we are constantly looking for innovative initiatives in the field of education and technology. Six years ago, we learned about 42 and its campus in Paris. We organized several visits to get to know the project better. We were excited about it. José María Álvarez-Pallete, the president of Telefónica, also visited the campus in Paris absolutely loved his visit. He was really impressed and inspired by 42, its innovative way of learning, its values, and the opportunities it continues to create for so many people.
42 Madrid was the first campus to open in Spain. We launched it in 2019 in September after a lot of trips to and from Paris. We loved the project and it aligned well with our values.
What were the motivations behind Fundación Telefónica’s decision to set up 42 campuses in Spain and sponsor them?
Our mission is to make the world more human by promoting inclusive digital development. 42’s philosophy fits very well with this mantra: promoting employability means working toward inclusion, equal opportunities, and social justice. These align with some of Fundación Telefónica’s main goals.
We work in Spain and Latin America, focusing on the most vulnerable sectors, promoting collaboration with businesses, sectors, and public administrations. In the end, we are a tech company. With our social values, we care a lot about employability. We know the labor market very well and we know how many opportunities 42 opens up for its students to work in IT. It’s a combination of education, opportunities, and technology. This triangle sums up very well what 42 is all about.
In your opinion, what sets 42 apart from other coding schools?
This is a great question because there are a lot of differences between 42 and other coding schools. Some key differences are our methodology: how our students learn, a strong sense of inclusion, and equal opportunities. The fact that students learn through peer-to-peer, with the community, with outer motivation, with creativity really sets 42 apart. It’s up to our students. We empower them to build up their skills now and their professional careers tomorrow.
What are your hopes for the future of 42 in Spain?
I love this question because we have many exciting objectives in the coming years. My hope is that our campuses grow to run at 100% of their capacity. We want to see our campuses full. We hope 42 continues to be a place of opportunities for many young people. We also want more companies to get involved with 42, to bring out more entrepreneurs from our ranks and to welcome more women on our campuses.
And for the future of education?
The future of education from my point of view is based on personalization: placing the student in the center and understanding their learning pace. Today, I believe technology gives us the opportunity to do so. Thirty years ago, it would have been more difficult, but now, we have all the technology we need to do it easily. We have a responsibility to offer students what they really need, to know their needs and goals, and personalize their learning path.
Regular education offers the same thing to everybody. As a professor, I have a class of twenty to thirty people who are more or less the same age, but all have different backgrounds. They expect different things, learn in different ways, at different speeds, have different levels of maturity, and in the end, we offer the same education model to each of them. This has to change and technology is the key to the process.
A quick word to conclude our interview?
I’d like to conclude this interview by highlighting the mantra of Fundación Telefónica, “make the world more human by promoting inclusive digital development.” I think it is a good phrase because it applies to people who come to discover the Piscine as well as to those already in the outer core of the program. The mantra extends as far as our close relationship with Latin American countries, where our social and human values make an impact. It doesn’t matter which level of digital development you have, in the end, we try to transform, to change the world.
