Solve for Tomorrow - Poland

Solve for Tomorrow is a space for learning and introducing technology-based solutions to local problems. The program teaches cooperation, responsibility sharing, develops presentation skills and prepares young people to work with new technologies, in line with sustainable development goals.

Get to know the program

Solve for Tomorrow is a unique competency program in which we give a voice to the young generation and listen to their vision of the world. There is still a lack of activities for this group who also have innovative ideas. Project work in schools is pushed into the background, meaning young people have no real contact with the labor market. This was an impulse for the Polish Solve for Tomorrow program addressed to young people, with emphasis placed on the method of design thinking, which is very useful for work, yet is used only to a small extent at school. 

Solve for Tomorrow is career counseling in practice, because participation in the program helps young people standing at the start of adult life to discover their strengths and focus on further development. Young people can face contemporary challenges by creating ideas using technology in the areas of health, safety, integration (equality) or climate. Solve for Tomorrow allows young people to gain additional knowledge from experts and develop the competences of the future: creativity, cooperation, communication, empathy and critical thinking. 

The implementation: an overview

The program was implemented in several steps. In the first one, participants divided into groups submitted ideas for projects. The jury selected 26 semi-finalists out of all the groups. At this step, the groups received support in the form of mentoring from an expert team and took part in Design Thinking workshops. 

The jury then selected the 10 final teams to prototype their solutions and present them at a pitch-deck session with help from Samsung volunteer staff. Thanks to such classes, young people also learn how AI and IoT work and why cybersecurity is important in everyday life.

At the same time, additional activities were carried out during the program: a webinar on sustainable development, a meeting with a LinkedIn expert, a 2-day campus with scientists from the Copernicus Science Center, learning through experiments and lectures delivered by communication experts or startups.

The first edition in numbers

During the first edition of the 2021/2022 program, a total of 138 teams participated, with 11 teams representing universities and 127 teams from schools. The student enrollment included 459 school students and 41 university students, while the project supervision was carried out by 130 teachers. The projects submitted covered various themes, with 33 focused on safety, 60 on health, and 45 on climate-related topics. The gender distribution among participants revealed 252 female students and 248 male students.

Throughout the program, the teams underwent 200 hours of Design Thinking training and held 60 hours of meetings with Samsung volunteers and external experts. Moreover, the participants actively engaged in a competition for the Audience Award, where a total of 6,628 votes were cast for 9 teams within 5 days. The winning team received 1,180 votes.

Since the program's launch in September 2021, a remarkable total of 632 publications have been released. The communication efforts in social media alone, during 2022, reached over 5 million people and garnered 97,000 interactions. Additionally, Mr. Teach's (PL: Pan Belfer) YouTube videos attracted an impressive 7,482 views.

Why is this a good practice?

Mobile applications are the solutions most frequently proposed by young people, which proves again that the digital world has become an inseparable part of their everyday lives and, when looking for ideas for solutions to the problems of the modern world, young people first reach for various achievements of the world of technology. 

The Design Thinking method, which they learn while working on projects during several months of workshops, is helpful in this. It sets a new direction in thinking about education, encouraging young people to act for a better future, at the same time confronting the attitude of the older generation and building a kind of bridge between generations for common cause.

Samsung’s experience as a technology company shows that this method of working holds good in creating innovations. Its goal is to create and implement innovative solutions, such as new products, services, events, processes, educational programs or business models.