The contest was initiated by UN Global Compact in Ukraine in partnership with Development Management Ukrainian Association and Business Education, Kyiv Business School, Labor Academy, DTEK and other companies.

The theme of the competition was the achievement of Goal 8 (decent work and economic growth) of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030. Applications from 78 teams, from 53 universities, coming from 23 Ukrainian cities were submitted for participation in the competition. More than 1,000 students worked on finding solutions to the Ukrainian human capital flight.

In his welcome speech, Aleksandr Kucherenko, Director of Sustainable Development at DTEK, emphasized: “I am very pleased that the younger generation understands the criticality of the outflow of human capital and is actively involved in the search for solutions to this issue. Academy DTEK educates 35,000 students in 206 specialties.  DTEK invests in education because it strives to motivate its’ employees to achieve their goals and potential right here in Ukraine. I believe that your generation can lead by example and show everyone that working in Ukraine is not only possible but also prestigious and cool. Set ambitious goals and achieve the impossible! ”

Ten teams from universities of Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Donetsk, and Lviv reached the finals. According to the contestants, the main problems that prompt Ukrainians to seek happiness abroad are:

  • low financial ability of young people to purchase or rent first housing;
  • high taxes for young people who begin to earn on their own;
  • high taxes for business from the date of its registration;
  • adverse environmental conditions.

“Our current legislation does not encourage businesses to engage in sustainable development,” said Tatyana Sakharuk, Director of the UN Global Compact. “To stimulate interest in technical professions, there should be a state support program,” she added.

“The youth can become the engine of change in our country, and DTEK is happy to support initiatives aimed at this,” said Evgenia Kuzminskaya, Head of the Internal Client Department at Academy DTEK, and jury member of the “Look of New Generation” contest.  As a company with almost 80 thousand people, we  experience firsthand the problem of human capital flight. DTEK is following the lead of international partners and is systematically working on the development of Ukrainian regions, introducing new technologies in production, and supporting science and technology. ”

The winners of the Look of New Generation contest are:

1st place the National Forestry University of Ukraine, Lviv project "5 innovations, 5 years, 10,000 jobs."

2nd place National Aviation University, Kyiv project "digitization of specialists' turnover cycle."

3rd place the Donetsk National University of Economics named after Mikhail Tugan-Baranovsky, Kryvyi Rih project "Make your city bright and safe for living."