This program facilitates successful school-to-work transition, promotes active citizenship and sustainability education, by equipping students with the skills and network necessary to start their professional life.
Lockdown Economy Challenge is an SDG-focused co-curricular program for tertiary education students: action-based learning where they address real-life challenges, specifically economic crises caused by the pandemic, as part of broader education for SDG. It involves from 20 to 500 students per university and can run simultaneously in 10-15 schools per semester. This program is recognized by the United Nations as an SDG partnership for Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI), formed at Rio+20 (#SDGAction38182).
Lockdown Economy Challenge was developed by the Think Tank AlterContacts to help universities engage students in remote social action which has an immediate impact on the community and multiple SDGs while being completely safe for all people involved. The main objective is to equip students with the skills and network necessary to start a professional life, facilitate successful school-to-work transition, promote active citizenship and sustainability education.
From its start in August 2020, the program has been completed at Epoka University (Albania), Anahuac Mayab University (Mexico). Currently, it is being tested in Polytechnic University of Madrid (Spain), “Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati (Romania), Pontifical Bolivarian University and Corporación Universitaria del Caribe (Colombia). Overall involving more than 300 students. In Autumn 2021 we want to help 3000 students across 10 universities become agents of sustainable change in their communities.
Guided by experts from the Think Tank AlterContacts and local university coordinators, students form interdisciplinary teams and following the Think Tank process come up with sustainable, innovative, and entrepreneurial ideas on how they can help small businesses around the world. After expert evaluation, the final proposals by students are sent directly to small businesses to enable the real impact of their work and organize further collaboration of winning teams with their chosen small businesses.
Our methodologies for social action towards sustainability are based on the Lockdown Economy, our nonprofit initiative to help small businesses overcome the pandemic. It won Gold in Women World Awards as “Hero of the Year: Helping Others During COVID-19”; became the Dutch finalist for the Charlemagne Youth Prize. And got recognized by the United Nations as Acceleration Action for SDG #SDGAction36773.