The Youth Day was held on 31 October – 2 November 2023 in St. Petersburg as part of the official convention programme of the 12th St. Petersburg International Gas Forum. The central topic of this year is “New Energy Reality”. The project has been implemented since 2015 by St. Petersburg State University of Economics (UNECON) with the support of Gazprom PJSC, International Business Congress (IBC) and other partner companies.
The first educational stage of the Youth Day 2023 project – the Virtual Academy – is over. Participants were engaged in an intensive course of lectures and dived deeply into the energy topic.
In 2023, the Youth Day will be held for the ninth time in the framework of St. Petersburg International Gas Forum. The project is traditionally held by St. Petersburg State University of Economics (UNECON) and supported by the International Business Congress and Gazprom. It is meant to be a platform for dialogue on the future of energy between industry leaders and young generation.
This year, more than 200 Master’s and PhD students from different countries applied for participation in the event. At the first stage, applicants had to solve an energy quiz to show their knowledge in energy sphere. Those, who passed the quiz, were accepted for participation in the Virtual Academy.
40 talented young people from 15 countries were able to meet face-to-face with each other and with leading experts in the energy industry.
In 2021, the international student project Energy Challenge (formerly Youth Day) took place for the seventh time. The goal of the project is to provide an interactive platform that unites leading industry experts and talented students from all over the world to transfer knowledge about the energy business and find new ideas and solutions.
The organizers and partners of the project are Higher Economic School of St. Petersburg State University of Economics (HES UNECON), International Business Congress (IBC), PJSC Gazprom, Uniper SE, Wintershall Dea AG, OMV AG, N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie, Energy Delta Institute, ESMT Berlin and Expoforum.
The participants are students from different universities of the world, leading industry experts and top managers of international energy companies, as well as representatives of the academic community.
The project includes two stages: the online educational program of Virtual Academy and events of Youth Day as part of St. Petersburg International Gas Forum (SPIGF), which has the status of IBC’s working project.
The first educational part of Energy Challenge 2021, the Virtual Academy (VA), is almost completed. The last webinar of the third educational module has just finished, but the participants still have two weeks for finishing their individual final challenge. The project organizers from the Higher Economic School of St. Petersburg State University of Economics (HES UNECON) summarize the preliminary results.
On April 26, the Virtual Academy, the first stage of the Energy Challenge project, was launched. Its topic is “Embracing Uncertainty with 3D”.
Virtual Academy is a three-month educational online program including three study modules. In each module, experts from the partner companies give classes on various energy topics. As part of the program, participants must complete two tasks and prepare their final individual project. At the end of the Virtual Academy, the best participants will be invited to St. Petersburg for the in-person Youth Day events to be held at the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum.