About us
Salesians of Don Bosco, a congregation of religious Priests, Brothers and lay collaborators, was founded in the XIX century by St. Giovanni Bosco, popularly known as Don Bosco. His existence, specially as an evangelising educator hasn’t been limited only to his person and time, but has been proposed as a concrete and specific educational-pastoral methodology for everyone who whishes to positively respond to the young who are most in need. The Schools now-a-days, as in the time of Don Bosco, are faced with one the greatest challenges our society in obtaining a balanced growth with concrete opportunities for everyone. So the educational system is a peculiar mark of our presence in schools and centres for professional education in 132 countries.
Our mission
The words, education and evangelization are so well connected to each other that it can be considered as the two faces of the same educational reality. Looking for new paths, adequate languages, different methods, in realizing the message, always presents the Christian Humanism as a symbol of hope, where the educators are seen to offer their lives to schools and centres for professional education of the Salesians all over the world.
Observing this in word and spirit, the Salesians remain faithful to Don Bosco’s educational and evangelical project. They renew his focus on the lives and needs of the children, the teenagers and the young, who will be “good Christians and honest citizens” (Don Bosco) of tomorrow. The Salesians are aware of their duty to announce, sow and encourage the young, during the crucial stages of their life, jointly sharing responsibility with committed lay people, with the hope that what is sown today, will bear rich fruits in the future.
This identity, originality and direction, results in an open attitude towards any student, of any age and in any condition. The reality outlined here is our firm belief that we hold fast to: the schools and centres for professional education are committed to educate the person and society, based on the experience, pedagogy and values of Don Bosco’s Preventive System.
On our part we offer, with this website, a space, in relation to the educational sector, for learning and exchanging of ideas; a search for joint projects and bilateral contacts with other Salesian centres in the wordl. Thus we place our faith and hope in the collective mission.
Our numbers
- 132 countries all over the world
- 3643 Schools:
- 940.000 students
- 68.000 educators
- 826 Vocational Training Centre:
- 200.300 students
- 15.000 educators
- 85 University institutes
- 280 Boarding school
- 205 Adult Education Centre
- 163 Hostel
- The Salesian Vocational Training Centre and the school came into existence in Valdocco to meet specific needs of youth and integrate them within an overall project of education and evangelisation of the young, especially those most in need.
- Motivated by a desire to ensure their dignity and their future, Don Bosco set up trade workshops, at the same time, helping his youngsters find work and entering into contracts for them with a view to preventing exploitation.
- This is the matrix of the current VTC which is concerned with promoting the human, Christian and professional formation of the young. This proposal responds to the predispositions, abilities and perspectives of many of them who at the end of their basic training, wish to get a job.
- Ever attentive to the needs of the young, Don Bosco extended his commitment by developing the Salesian school. He sensed that the school was an essential tool for education, a meeting point between culture and faith.
- The school environment has developed considerably in the Congregation in response to the needs of the young people themselves, of society and of the Church. It has become a movement of educators firmly established in the school area.
- There are also Pre-Vocational Training Centres with a special set-up and varied proposals: career guidance, education and training, updating, upgrading, integration and social and work reintegration, promotion of social-minded enterprise.
- Some provinces offer the service of a boarding school for boys attending schools/VTC. It is a conducive environment for study in a climate of peaceful coexistence. The boys are constantly accompanied by a team of educators.
