Pro Juventute: Promoting STEM in Career Choices

Pro Juventute aims to increase its reach among young people and excite them about STEM professions and competencies that will be relevant in the future. Zühlke supports in developing and testing market-oriented ideas.

Bridging interests to competencies

Only a few of the adolescents undergoing vocational education in Switzerland choose to be trained in one of the STEM fields like mathematics, information technology, natural sciences and technology, although the corresponding skills of the digitalized working world are in high demand. Utilising an approach that is designed to address young people, Pro Juventute aims to interest adolescents in the STEM world and inspire their career choice. The aim is to bridge the gap between personal interests and abilities of the target groups and the promotional offers of third parties in the STEM field. The goal is to demystify STEM, to show new target groups perspectives and to support young STEM talents in Switzerland.

Creating a market-oriented prototype

Zühlke guides the Pro Juventute team through an innovation process and enables them to develop customer-centric products. By means of Need Finding, the needs and pain points around the topic of STEM education and training are identified and prioritised in direct collaboration with young people. Based on the findings, simple ideas for solutions are generated and further developed in the ideation process in co-creation with the target group. The best ideas are validated by testing simple prototypes in the market.

Playful approach

The customer-centered innovation approach generates promising solutions quickly and iteratively. Adolescents are made aware of relevant skills for the future in a topic-driven way and by means of gamification. In this way, Pro Juventute aims to bridge the gap between the personal interests of young people and the skills they need for STEM professions. For this purpose, Instagram stories are connected and tested with the prototype of digital experiences. In the next phase of development, Zühlke will take on a coaching function.