Further strengthening the SAP for education commitment, the company’s Young ICT Explorers program continues to pave the way for hopeful students to improve their education and enhance their digital skills today.
Using business-specific software solutions, SAP has been helping transform organisations of all sizes across various industries — empowering them towards becoming sustainable, intelligent enterprises. In the education sector, the multinational corporation not only delivers industry cloud solutions to assist institutions in operating their mission-critical processes but also fosters a digital educational environment in collaboration with private and non-profit groups.
As part of the ASEAN DSE initiative, which has been running since 2017, SAP and the ASEAN Foundation have been working closely together to engage university students in Southeast Asia in building data-driven solutions that showcase the Sustainable Development Goals outlined by the United Nations. Closer to home, SAP’s Young ICT Explorers program is supported by The Smith Family, CSIRO Digital Careers, and Kinetic IT and School Bytes to educate Years 3 to 12 students on how to harness the power of today’s technological innovation.
Launched in 2010, the competition sponsored by the German enterprise software giant seeks to encourage interest in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) among youth and children in Australia and New Zealand. The not-for-profit program also intends to inspire students to develop ICT-related projects as an extracurricular activity which can then be used to address real-world issues. Recently, SAP released the results of its 13th annual awards ceremony where remarkable students emerged as Australia’s most innovative young inventors.
This year, 723 students from 76 schools all over the country presented tech-based projects ranging from recycling management, initiatives to better support for the disadvantaged members of the community, to programs geared towards emergency and crisis preparedness. Two young inventors from NSW, one team and an independent participant from Victoria, and a group from Queensland earned the top spots of the competition.
Strengthening the SAP for Education Commitment
Moreover, SAP’s Young ICT Explorers Accelerator Program has an ongoing partnership with independent children’s charity The Smith Family to help close the digital gap in society. According to the statement released, the 2021 Young ICT Explorers competition had a record 30% of entrants from The Smith Family’s partner schools.
The Smith Family Deputy CEO Judy Barraclough believes that disadvantaged students must be provided support to access the resources they need to fully participate in a labour market that is increasingly focusing on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Further commenting on the collaboration with SAP, she said:
“We’re grateful to SAP for investing in our students, allowing them to strengthen their digital skills, improve their educational outcomes and create better futures for themselves. Well done to all the incredible students who participated in the Young ICT Explorers competition this year.”
Acknowledging that the future of work will increasingly rely on ICT skills, the Hon. Victor Dominello MP, NSW Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government, emphasised the importance of encouraging children to explore and keep up with technology early in life. He added:
“I welcome SAP and its partners’ efforts to continue to facilitate this opportunity for our next generation. If this year’s finalists are anything to go by, we can look forward to many talented young inventors pursuing promising careers in ICT in the future.”
Sharing more about the SAP for education vision for young people in the country, Pete Andrew, Young ICT Explorers Executive Sponsor and Head of Industries at SAP ANZ, expressed his delight to see an “impressive array of skills” — such as robotics and coding, as well as understanding of engineering — that were applied to solve huge environmental and societal issues.
“At SAP, we’re proud to play a part in helping more Australian students from diverse backgrounds understand how they can leverage the power of technology to change the world and improve people’s lives,” Andrew remarked.
