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Time
to ignite
opportunity

Join us for the Skills Upload Jr Challenge!

This challenge is open to students aged between 6 and 19 years old from Albania, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Romania, Turkey, Greece, and Italy.

Entrants are invited to develop solutions to real-life, community-wide issues that are common to all European citizens, and in which technology is a lever to drive positive changes in their environments.

This initiative involves:

Institutions
Schools
Parents
Society at large

We offer digital resources, training and materials for teachers and students to enhance the benefits and learnings acquired throughout the process.

logo skills upload jr

Theme

We firmly believe that technology is a vehicle for inclusion. For this reason, the principal focal point of the SUJ Challenge this year is “Breaking the Digital Divide: Generating Inclusion Through Digital Technology”.

Each country is invited to find solutions related to quality education, gender equality and sustainable cities and communities.

Quality education

Gender equality

Sustainable cities and communities

Young people, protagonists of change

Young people are leading the way to a more connected and sustainable future. That is why we want them to research and understand their environment, become aware of the inequalities that exist and realise the potential of technology to address and solve these gaps.
It is important to foster their ability to be creative and imaginative and to promote a proactive and creative mindset, essential skills to thrive in a digital world.

Each team will be supervised by a teacher who will highlight how, despite being born in the digital age, it is important that they know how to use technology applied to a real problem in a conscious, safe and critical way.

How it works:

The methodology for this challenge is based on design-thinking, with the students proposing the problem that most affects them according to their circumstances, and the solutions to overcome it.

These are the steps to follow:

1
Students find a barrier or problem for inclusion in their community.
2
Students define this problem as a challenge.
3
Students propose a solution to their challenge that includes technology as a lever or driver for change.

Ways to implement

Each country will choose how to address this challenge in one of the following ways…

Competition

  • Students, who might receive training or resources to be able to enter the challenge, will have several weeks to participate in it.
  • Outreach partners can be ministries of education, regional governments, local authorities, schools, etc.
  • This implementation model has already been applied in some countries within the development of their local programmes.

Hackathon

  • In this model, students will work at Ideathons or one-off events for 1 or 2 days to complete the challenge. It is during these days that students learn about the challenge and receive training to find solutions using the appropriate technology.
  • It is possible that several hackathons will be launched during the duration of the challenge to reach more beneficiaries.
  • Outreach partners can be schools, educational associations, governments, etc.

With this approach, we can help to create a better future for both students and society at large by celebrating the potential and the creativity of each participant, encouraging not only their technical knowledge but also their passion, the innovation, and the capacity to transform ideas into impacting solutions.

The Award

The winning projects from the 9 countries will participate in the European award ceremony organised by Vodafone Foundation in Bucharest, (Romania). There they will have the chance to present their projects and immerse themselves in an enriching international experience.

Local challenges

Choose your country for registration:

Germany Spain Albania Greece Turkey
Italy Portugal Netherlands Romania
Spain Portugal Italy Romania Germany Netherlands Turkey Albania Greece

Albania

We will launch a hackathon in Albania for young people from 12 to 18.

Germany

We will launch a competition in Germany for young people from 12 to 16, centred around SDG 4: Quality Education and verified online content.

Spain

We will launch a competition in Spain for young people from 9 to 12, centred around SDG 4: Quality Education, SDG 5: Gender Equality and SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities.

Greece

We will launch a competition in Greece for young people from 12 to 18, centred around SDG 4: Quality Education, SDG 5: Gender Equality and SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities.

Italy

We will launch a hackathon in Italy for young people from 14 to 18, centred around SDG 5: Gender Equality (girls in STEM) and SDG 4: Quality Education, SDG 5: Gender Equality and SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities.

Netherlands

We will launch a competition in the Netherlands for young people from 6 to 12, centred around SDG 4: Quality Education.

Portugal

We will launch a competition in Portugal for young people from 6 to 11.

Turkey

We will launch a hackathon in Turkey for young people from 14 to 18, centred around SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities.

Romania

We will launch a competition in Romania for young people from 11 to 16, centred around SDG 4: Quality Education, SDG 5: Gender Equality and SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities.