High school graduates win start-up prize

Two young women from Frechen near Cologne have won the Rhein-Erft-Kreis start-up prize for their idea of a job placement service for students and school pupils.

Just graduated from high school, already founders and now prize winners: Celina Götte and Bersa Shazimani took first place in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis 2021 start-up prize, receiving 1,000 euros for their Junior Job start-up idea. Together with two programmers, they have created a platform that students and school pupils can use to find part-time jobs. This also offers companies and job seekers the opportunity to start an apprenticeship and try out the place and environment of work beforehand.

In the finals, the "Junior Job" idea providers prevailed against nine other applications, ultimately competing against the finalists "Local Heroes" and "Golden Memories". The latter idea took second place and received 500 euros. Behind it is an app that includes memory training with photos for people suffering from dementia, for example. Third place went to the "Lokalhelden" team, who developed personalized playing cards from amateur soccer. Anyone who buys them also supports their local club.

The prize, awarded for the second time, is organized by Wirtschaftsförderung Rhein-Erft GmbH and regional partners such as Kreissparkasse Köln and BusinessCenter Frechen. The winners were chosen by a jury together with the public.