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10/24/18
Wolfsburg
Volkswagen Group News

xStarters challenge for digital social ideas from teens

xStarters challenge for digital social ideas from teens
  • xStarters challenge runs until November 30, 2018
  • 300 young people registered and 50 teams established in the first few days after the announcement
  • Federal Minister of Labor Heil: xStarters combines digital education and social action

The xStarters challenge of the Volkswagen Group only started a few days ago and 300 young people have already registered. With its xStarters challenge, the Volkswagen Group is support-ing 14-19-year-olds who wants to develop apps for volunteering, digital campaigns for social purposes or digital social challenges together with other young people. With the xStarters app, the participants will work on three tasks in small teams and collect initial experience on how idea and product development works. The teams are being supported by Volkswagen mentors.

Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil has assumed the patronage of the xStarters challenge and says: “xStarters combines digital education and social action. This will create fantastic innovative ideas which will thrill young people at the same time as teaching them skills for the future. Social innovations and commitment to the common good are what the country expects of the German automotive industry.”

Volkswagen HR Board Member Gunnar Kilian: “xStarters has got off to a successful start. With this project, we want to give young people an opportunity to try out their ideas and capabilities, to believe in themselves, to do some programming and to put things into practice. With xStarters, we also want to start a dialogue with young people without any preconceptions. What makes them tick? What do they think is important for the future? How can we provide support? xStarters is an offer from Volkswagen to young people, sending out a clear signal: we have their future and the future of society at heart.” The best 15 teams to emerge from the xStarters challenge will be able to present their ideas to the xStarters jury at the xStarters award party to be held at the Phaeno in Wolfsburg on February 9, 2019. The jury includes: Sara Nuru, model and social entrepreneur from NuruCoffee, Fabian Bräunlein, hacker, Security Research Labs, Prof. Dr. Gesche Joost, Professor of Design Research, University of the Arts Berlin, Hans Reitz, social business entrepreneur and consultant, and Gunnar Kilian, Volkswagen Board Member for Human Resources.

Apart from attractive prizes, competitors can win individual support by experts for the implementation of their own ideas. In addition, all 15 teams will receive one year’s membership of the
“Social Entrepreneurship Network Germany“.

The xStarters Digital Accelerator will assist the best five teams with the further development of their project. The accelerator is a program which will allow teams to continue the development of their ideas with professional coaching provided by experts. The prizes on offer include an iPhone X, a 3-D printer, a HERO6 from GoPro, iPads from Apple or the Instax Mini 70 instant camera from Fujifilm.

Blog: You will regularly find exciting interviews and articles in the xStarters blog at https://xstarters.digital/blog/.

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