young leaders GmbH offers socially and politically active young people the opportunity for value-based and professional orientation, access to factual information, debates on social issues, participation in communication training, and a chance to network at educational events, such as multi-day seminars, young leaders academies, Latin Academies, youth press conventions, the Europe-wide EYDC® – European Youth Debating Competition, and more.young leaders GmbH offers socially and politically active young people the opportunity for value-based and professional orientation, access to factual information, debates on social issues, participation in communication training, and a chance to network at educational events, such as multi-day seminars, young leaders academies, Latin Academies, youth press conventions, the Europe-wide EYDC® – European Youth Debating Competition, and more.

The events are directed at those in school, apprentices, trainees, students, and volunteers in voluntary service aged 15-21 who take on responsibility for others – e.g. as student representatives, school newspaper editors, or leaders of social, political, ecclesiastical, or other projects.

Invitations are sent out via our newsletter and to teachers and schools all over Germany.

At schools, teachers pass on invitations to students who they think may benefit from the opportunity, post the invitations on bulletin boards, or leave them with the school’s administrative office.

Invitations are sent out via our newsletter and to teachers and schools all over Germany. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive future email updates about our scheduled events.

Applications can be submitted online via our website www.young-leaders.net/veranstaltungen.
Please note that only applications received online before the relevant application deadline can be considered.

All you need to submit a valid application is to complete the online application form on our website. You are welcome to submit additional letters of recommendation or other proof of your volunteer and extracurricular activities. The most important selection criterion is what you do for others as a volunteer and in positions of responsibility; you only need to enclose certificates if this is explicitly requested in the application.

What you must pay is the participation fee indicated in the invitation. This participation fee covers travel costs, food and accommodation costs, as well as the costs of excursions according to the invitation.

The main criterion for admission is the volunteer and extracurricular activity of the applicant. This includes school and extracurricular involvement, such as being a member of a student council or newspaper; mediating disputes between peers as part of a trained student team; leading a working group; involvement in church or sport; political involvement; voluntary work with the lifeguards, the St. John’s Ambulance or the Maltese Order, in the youth fire brigade, the Federal Agency for Technical Relief or the Red Cross, right through to caring for sick or disabled people or involvement in a social project.

The invitation will indicate by when applicants should expect to receive a response to their application. If you have not received a message from us by the specified date, please contact us by e-mail or telephone.

Yes. Applicants on the waiting list are usually notified 1-2 weeks before the event whether there is a possibility to take part at the event.

Yes. As a matter of principle, participants at our events are expected not to arrive later or depart earlier than advertised in the invitation. In light of the schedule in the invitation and the fact that we regularly receive many more applications for our workshops, academies, and conventions than there are places available, we expect all applicants to be prepared to actively participate in the full schedule.

All accepted applicants will first receive an “Acceptance I” e-mail. After the participant confirms their place, we will send “Acceptance II”, which includes all further information on travel. Before the event starts, approved participants will receive a voucher code for a Deutsche Bahn AG event ticket (free choice of train for the outward and return journey) by e-mail. The costs for this are included in the participation fee.

Participants travel to and from the venue independently. For data protection reasons, we do not give out any data from our applicants. However, you are welcome to write an email which we will forward to participants from your region so that they can contact you if they are interested.

It is important that you bring a valid identity card/children’s ID or passport, the participation fee in cash, and any other documents listed in the acceptance correspondence.

No. However, we ask you to wear clean and tidy clothing.

This will be handed to you at the end of the event.

As long as you meet the application criteria, you can apply for every event. We ask applicants applying for an event in the same category as an event in which they have already participated (e.g. someone who participated at the 77th young leaders academy applying for participation at the 79th young leaders academy) for their understanding that in such cases we give preference to first-time applicants.

In the invitations to our events, we explicitly inform you about who is the contracting authority and/or patron of the event, who financially supports and/or sponsors the event, which institutions from government and/or business and/or the non-profit sector provide which speaker, if this is the case.

Since we receive many more requests than we can offer internships, we offer this opportunity exclusively to our young team members.