COVID-19 has made life difficult for everyone, but students and young professionals around the world have had it especially hard. The coronavirus crisis has caused internships to plummet by more than half, more than 1 in 6 young people to be out of work, and another 41% to be at risk of losing their jobs.

To counter many of the negative consequences of the crisis, oikos has teamed up with Goodwall and other world-renowned institutions to launch BetterTogether. This FREE, 5+-week online program is specifically designed to help young people prepare for the post-COVID-19 world of work.

About the BetterTogether Program

Taking place between August 1–September 16, BetterTogether is a free online program aimed at helping young people like yourself reach your full potential. Its aim is to help you develop skills, gain experience, and network globally, while also giving you the chance to win up to $25K in prizes for participation!

Here’s what’s in store throughout the program’s 5+ weeks:

• A series of 10 challenges to develop skills like critical thinking, creativity, and communication;
• Weekly AMA speaker sessions with inspiring leaders and role models, including actress Shreya Patel, climate champion Marie-Claire Graf, comedian Rajiv Satyal, and Ecosia co-founder Fred Henderson;
• The ability to connect with over 1.5 million students, entrepreneurs, and young professionals from 150+ countries around the world;
• The chance to win up to $25,000 in prizes, scholarships, and exclusive opportunities;
• Exclusive access to modules within Pearson’s Workplace Behaviors Learning Program;
• And much more!

How to Participate in BetterTogether?

Anyone anywhere can participate in the BetterTogether program for free—simply download the Goodwall app on iOS or Android to get started!

Once you’re a Goodwall member, you can participate in BetterTogether challenges by posting short videos, pitching ideas, and showcasing achievements, among other things.

You can respond to any number of challenges you desire, and each one comes with its own unique prize. On completion program participants will also receive a digital certificate.  

About Goodwall

Goodwall is the next-generation community and social development network built specifically for the needs of Gen Z and younger millennials. Goodwall aims to help students, entrepreneurs, and young professionals by giving them a platform to pitch ideas, share achievements, showcase their talents, highlight their experience, meet like-minded peers, locate jobs and internships, find scholarships, and seek & provide support.

The Goodwall community is made up of over 1.5 million members from 150+ countries across the globe. With 5+ million job and internship opportunities, more than $1 million in scholarships and awards, thousands of volunteer events, and hundreds of online courses, Goodwall is well-prepared to help navigate students and young professionals through this new decade.

With the COVID19 pandemic still present and the uncertainties it causes largely affecting any kind of activity planning by the end of the year, oikos International has decided to make major changes and adjustments to the event calendar for the rest of 2020.

The changes in place are meant to ensure maximum safety of participants’ health and prevent further spread of the disease, which is also in line with WHO recommendations and measures taken by the respective governments of the countries in which the events were originally meant to take place in.

We highly recommend all oikos chapters to follow rules provided by their home countries and to be in touch with their universities to know what are the event policies to comply with. If you need to shift your local projects into an online format, oikos International team can support you.

The most important change affects the flagship oikos events – FutureLab 2020 and Spring Meeting 2021 along with LEAP kick-off meeting.

FutureLab – the milestone 10^th edition of the FutureLab was originally planned to be hosted in November of this year. As the circumstances regarding the pandemic are constantly changing and the inability to predict what the global situation could look like and the potential restrictions which could be in place at the end of the year, the decision was made to move the event to the next semester. The new date for FutureLab is set for March 26 to 27 2021. Moving to an online format was considered, but ultimately, the team decided the best solution would be moving it to a time period when there would possibly be no health concerns which would allow the oikos Community to meet in person. We believe that the onsite character of FutureLab is what makes it the biggest annual event for the oikos Community, which is why the decision to shift to an online format was overruled in favor of setting a new date. More information will be available soon at the event page.

Legislative Assembly Autumn 2020 – The legislative meeting, where the new Board members will be elected, scheduled for November 29 will be organized online, following the Chapter Days Autumn 2020 which are taking place on November 27 and 28. Building up on the success of the Chapter Days and Legislative Assembly in spring this year we are confident in the online format of the two events.

LEAP Kick Off Meeting – following the rescheduling of FutureLab, the LEAP onsite meeting will be taking place in Leysin from March 18 to 25.

Spring Meeting 2021 – with rescheduling of FutureLab to spring 2021, the Spring Meeting for next year will be cancelled as to not overlap with other oikos events scheduled for this time period. As an alternative, an Autumn Meeting organized by an oikos chapter is currently being considered. We will keep you posted for all updates.

Legislative Assembly Spring 2021 – The legislative meeting which previously was a part of the Spring Meeting will be reincorporated into the rescheduled FutureLab and will take place both onsite and online on March 25

NexGenLead – formerly known as the Global Virtual Conference, organized in partnership with swissnex Brazil and supported by Movetia, is a fully online conference with sessions taking place from October 31 to November 21. More information will be available soon at the event page.

oikos Winter School 2020 in summer – Winter School was scheduled for March this year, but due to the outbreak of COVI19, oikos Witten/Herdecke decided to postpone the event. The new date is set for August 21 to 23. More information is available at the event page.

oikos CEE Meeting 2020 – the regional meeting for Central and Eastern Europe region will be organized by oikos Tbilisi from September 25 to 27 both onsite and online. With the pandemic under control in Georgia the Tbilisi team are confident in safety of organizing the event onsite, however, the online option remains in case the situation deteriorates. 

St. Gallen Unconference on sustainability 2020 – The oikos Unconference is the participative-driven conference on Sustainability organised by the oikos Alumni, for the international oikos community from August 21 to 22. More information available here.

As always, the oikos Community Hours will be taking part on the first Thursday of every month from 5 to 7pm CEST at the virtual office. All oikees are welcome to join! You can find more information on Podio.

oiConference – the third edition of the oiConference organized by oikees from Boston and New York City is planned for upcoming fall. More information will follow soon.

In these times when the world as we knew it has undergone instantaneous change, there is no better time to focus on changes that will make the world a better place for all and link the Covid 19 recovery with a transition to a low-carbon economy while addressing social inequalities at the same time. 

This Carbon Literacy Training Programme equips you with the information and skills needed to make these high impact changes in your work for example research, teaching or consultancy work in order to reduce carbon emissions along with addressing mutiple other SDGs.  A certificate is given upon full participation and completion of the training. 

The four sessions cover:
1.Positive Futures Scenarios and Climate Justice
2. Climate Science and the matching high impact climate solutions
3. Carbon calculation and individual action
4. Climate Change Mitigation: a systems approach5. Your own Action Plan

The sessions will take place on each of the Monday’s in July, a two hour session.

July 6^th, 13^th, 20^th and 27^th

Here are the links to register:
Please find them below:
Monday, 6 July 5 p.m. – 7:00 pm. CEST: Register
Monday, 13 July 5 p.m. – 7:00 pm. CEST: Register
Monday, 20 July 5 p.m. – 7:00 pm. CEST: Register
Monday, 29 July 5 p.m. – 7:00 pm. CEST:  Register

The PRME Working Group on Climate Change and Environment will be conducting the training and this will also give you the opportunity to find out more about their work and actively contribute to the further development of the teaching materials and research within this critical area.

Learn more about Carbon Literacy Project