2019 YES! School Competition Starting at ZEW

How to create affordable living space? By which way to minimise the emergence of fake news? How to form educational systems that do not discriminate and have equal opportunities for anyone and how to strengthen the labour market for refugees? Those are only some of the future questions, being approached in 2019 by schools in the south-west of Germany in Germany’s biggest economical school competition YES! – Young Economic Summit. Eleven teams from Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and Saarland are working on ideas and solutions, starting in February. The teams are being accompanied by researchers of the ZEW.

The local students from the south-west of Germany and the researchers from ZEW will immerse into the topics in a first kick-off round. After that, they have four months to come up with their own solutions. On 26 June 2019 the regional finals will take place at ZEW. Three winner teams of the south-west region will be chosen, which will have the honour to compete at the national finals. Within the YES! initiative the younger generation is already developing inventive solutions for the fifth time. ZEW has accompanied the winning teams both in 2017 and 2018. Therefore, the incentive to be one of the leading teams again is high.

The following topics can be chosen and will be competing:

Climate Change and the European CO₂ Market(Carina Fugger, ZEW) – Wirtschaftswissenschafliches Gymnasium und Saarland-Kolleg

• Climate Change and the European CO₂ Market(Carina Fugger, ZEW) – Werner-Heisenberg-Gymnasium Weinheim
• Equal Opportunities in the Education Sector(Lukas Riedel, ZEW) – Otto-Hahn-Gymnasium Landau/Pfalz
• Equal Opportunities in the Education Sector(Lukas Riedel, ZEW) – Lessing-Gymnasium Mannheim
• Facts vs. Fake News – Why Digital Science Communication Is Getting More Important(Daniela Heimberger and Felix Kretz, ZEW) – Internatsschule Schloss Hansenberg Geisenheim
• Going Digital – Leading Companies into a Successful Future(Jörg Ohnemus and Steffen Viete, ZEW) – Hohe Landesschule Hanau
• Helping Innovative Small and Medium Enterprises Grow(Bastian Krieger and Markus Trunschke, ZEW) – Richard-Müller-Schule Fulda BBS
• Strengthening Labour Market Integration of Refugees: Which Approaches Work?(Paul Berbée and Katrin Sommerfeld, ZEW) – Engelsburg-Gymnasium Kassel
• Strengthening Labour Market Integration of Refugees: Which Approaches Work?(Paul Berbée and Katrin Sommerfeld, ZEW) – Käthe-Kollwitz-Gymnasium Neustadt an der Weinstraße
• Tackling the Problem of Housing Unaffordability! – But How?(Carolin Schmidt and Frank Brückbauer, ZEW) – Kurfürst-Ruprecht-Gymnasium Neustadt an der Weinstraße
• Tackling the Problem of Housing Unaffordability! – But How?(Carolin Schmidt and Frank Brückbauer, ZEW) – BSZ Leonberg

About YES!

The YES! – Young Economic Summit is a joint project of the German National Library of Economics (ZBW) – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics and the Joachim Herz Stiftung in Hamburg under under the patronage of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy. YES! is one of the biggest high school competitions in Germany looking at issues affecting the future of our world. Over the course of a six-month mentoring programme, student teams tackle pressing issues facing future generations. The students come up with their own solutions to global economic, ecological and social problems and present them as part of a conference for other students, also known as the “YES! – Young Economic Summit”. Researchers from various Leibniz institutions support the students by providing their scientific expertise. The regional qualification round for teams from Southwest Germany will take place on 26 June 2019 at ZEW in Mannheim. The best teams from five different regions will then face off against each other at the YES! national final in Hamburg in September 2019.