YES! Regional Final at ZEW

The competition is heating up: Which of the eight high school teams mentored by ZEW will make it through the Southwest regional final to compete in the grand final? Could this year’s winner be one of the ZEW teams? In 2017, one of the teams mentored by ZEW from BBS Wirtschaft 1 Ludwigshafen was crowned the winner of YES! by German Federal Minister of Economic Affairs Brigitte Zypries at an official ceremony held in Berlin.

The YES! – Young Economic Summit is one of the biggest high school competitions in Germany looking at issues affecting the future of our world. The YES! programme, a joint project run by the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics and the Joachim Herz Stiftung, is under the patronage of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. Over the course of a six-month mentoring programme, teams of high school students – divided into four different regions – will come up with their own solutions to key issues likely to face our society in the near future. Researchers from various Leibniz institutions are supporting the students by providing their scientific expertise. Since encouraging young researchers is a key concern of ZEW, our research staff were all in agreement that the institute should continue to support the competition in the Southwest region in 2018.

At the Regional Qualification to be held at ZEW on 15 June, the eight YES! teams from the region will present their solutions in front of an audience. The students will then vote on what they think the best ideas are and their votes will decide which three teams will represent the Southwest in the national final, which will take place in Hamburg in September. The teams will be presenting their solutions on the following topics:

• eGoverning Germany: The Future of Public Administration, mentors: Sebastian Blesse & Thomas Schwab (ZEW)
• Promoting Digitisation in Businesses, mentors: Jörg Ohnemus & Steffen Viete (ZEW)
• Media Usage in the Digital World, mentors: Daniel Erdsiek & Thomas Niebel (ZEW)
• How to Combat Child Poverty and How Can Children and Adolescents Be Best Supported?, mentor: Holger Stichnoth (ZEW)
• Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Highly Skilled Migrants, mentors: Bastian Krieger & Maikel Pellens, Florence Blandinieres & Markus Trunschke (ZEW)

More information can be found on the YES! website

Only registered YES! project groups and spectators may attend. If you are interested in attending the event, please contact us at event@zew.de.