High school graduates win business start-up award

Two young women from Frechen near Cologne have won the Rhine-Erft District Business Start-up Prize for their idea of a job agency for students and school pupils.

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

In the finals, the idea creators of "Junior Job" prevailed against nine other applications. In the end, they competed against the finalists "Lokalhelden" and "Golden Memories". The latter idea took second place and received 500 euros. Behind this is an app that includes memory training with photos for people suffering from dementia, for example. Third place went to the team behind the idea "Lokalhelden" (local heroes), who have developed personalised playing cards from amateur football. Anyone who buys them also supports their local club.

The prize, which was awarded for the second time, is organized by Wirtschaftsförderung Rhein-Erft GmbH and regional partners such as Kreissparkasse Köln and BusinessCenter Frechen. A jury decided on the winners together with the audience.