International, digital, young – record participation in Germany’s largest economics competition for schools “YES! – Young Economic Summit”

Kiel/Hamburg, 27 January 2021: Germany’s largest school competition featuring global economic, ecological and social themes goes abroad this year. With more than 70 teams from Germany and guests from the UK and the USA, the competition is the biggest ever. The new learning and communications environment “YES! Campus”, developed by the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics and the Joachim Herz Foundation, helps to overcome boundaries.

“With YES! 2021 we want to connect young people who are faced with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, home schooling, restrictions on partying and travelling, and yet are not tired of finding creative and solution-oriented ways of working on the social challenges of our time. Beyond their peer group and their own thinking habits. We are happy that YES! 2021 will be more international, more digital and more youthful,” says Dr Willi Scholz, the head of the YES! – Young Economic Summit.

More international: Despite the pandemic, the YES! has more participating school teams than ever. 67 teams from Germany, two from the UK and two from the USA are competing this year. 86 researchers from 25 economic research institutes will support them in their work on 51 topics. The participation of the UK and the USA is possible thanks to the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. In December 2020, the YES! has received the encouragement award “ Raising the Profile of Education and Science Diplomacy” for its concept YES! Bridge.

More digital: YES! can manage the high number of participating schools firstly by digitising the events and secondly by establishing a learning managament system called “YES! Campus” that facilitates all working processes.

More youthful: Starting in 2021, the YES! will also be available for grades 5 to 9 in Schleswig-Holstein, thanks to a grant from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Under the name of YES! MINT, students in the age range from eleven to fifteen will cover themes at the interface between MINT and Economics. YES! MINT is a prototype funded for three years and will be rolled out nationally if successful. It is based on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

About the YES!

The „YES! – Young Economic Summit“ is one of the biggest school competitions around economic and social challenges facing the young generation. Students create solutions for global economic, ecological and social problems on their own and present them in English at a school congress, the YES! – Young Economic Summit. Discourse with leaders and other students sharpens their view for global interrelations and helps them to develop their own innovative solution proposals. A democratic vote picks the best solutions. The chosen solutions receive awards and are passed on for implementation and follow-up to people and organisations able to do so. All participating schools are continually supported and accompanied in the areas of research, presentation and media relations. Thus the YES! applies recommendations of the German conference of ministers of education that students must be enabled to use media critically. The “YES! – Young Economic Summit” is under the patronage of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and a joint project of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics and the Joachim Herz Foundation. In 2021, the YES! received the encouragement award “Raising the Profile of Education and Science Diplomacy”. Also in 2021, the prototype YES! MINT was launched, a competition for grades 5 to 9 at the interface between MINT and business.

About the Joachim Herz Foundation:

The non-profit Joachim Herz Foundation acts mostly operatively, mainly in the fields of natural sciences, business and personal development. In these areas it also funds small, innovative projects of other parties. Since 2017, the foundation has also supported research projects in medicine, law and engineering science. The Joachim Herz Foundation was established in 2008 and counts among the large German foundations.