Toyota Eco Youth Program Carries On Despite Challenging Situation

It is no surprise that many activities are disrupted but UMW Toyota Motor is making an effort to carry on with the Toyota Eco Youth Program despite the current challenging situation.

This year, the Toyota Eco Youth (TEY) Program is celebrating its 20th year with the aptly coined theme – “Reimagining Mobility”. This program hopes to promote the spirit of inclusivity and freedom of ideas as the foundation for the creation of safe and eco-friendly mobility.

With the limitations of movement and gathering, TEY has been adapted to a fully online format. The change to the digital platform encompasses interactive e-learning lessons and workshops, which proved to be highly effective. The respective school teams were able to adapt to this new format and showcase their ideas through impressively produced videos and online presentations.

Launched in January 2021 for secondary school students (13 – 16 years old), TEY has attracted the participation of 282 teams from 177 schools. This is the highest ever participation recorded by the program.

Since December 2020, 16 shortlisted teams have been formulating their proposals. These were posted in social media channels for the public. Additionally, each team developed a podcast episode presented on Spotify. The final judging phase in April saw the list shortened to 10 finalists. The winning teams will be chosen after they make their respective ‘pitches’ through live presentations on 29 May 2021.

“As always, we are highly impressed by the quality of the projects and the innovative ideas proposed. It is never easy for our judges to choose the best as everyone is a winner in their own way,” said President of UMW Toyota Motor, Ravindran K.

This year, UMWT has doubled the prize money to further reward ingenuity amongst the youth. Winning teams stand a chance to win cash prizes from a RM64,000 prize pool.

The Toyota Eco Youth Program was established in collaboration with the Malaysian Ministry of Education. Over the past two decades, 258 schools, 1,910 secondary school students and 762 teachers have participated.

Each year, challenging and interesting themes have been provided, and participants have come up with innovative solutions and proposals applicable to their school or community. Over RM7 million has been spent by UMWT to run the program annually.

“Toyota Motor Corporation and UMW Toyota Motor are proud to be playing a part in cultivating environment consciousness and innovative thinking for the young generation. This year, we are pleased to share our vision for mobility with these students. It is assuring to know that the next generation will be ready to face new challenges that arise as we all strive to make our planet a more mobile and inclusive place for everyone,” said Akio Takeyama, Deputy Chairman of UMW Toyota Motor.