World news story

Matt’s Youth Advisers

British Embassy Prague is starting a new programme to engage with young people across the Czech Republic.

Objectives

British Embassy Prague is starting a new programme to engage with young people across the Czech Republic, to hear their voices, and to help them develop as leaders and role models. Participants will form a diverse group of 8-10 that will work directly with the UK Ambassador through regular online meetings over a ten month period (February – December 2024).

Who can apply

The competition is open to residents of the Czech Republic who are aged 18 to 26 and are able to communicate in both English and Czech.

The primary requirement is to have energy and ideas. No links with the UK are required but participants will need to be available over the entire duration of the programme, and to be confident to follow a discussion in English. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds, occupations and fields of study.

How to participate

Answer the following two questions (in English, maximum 300 words per answer):

  1. How do you as an individual make a difference to your community, country or the world at large? List examples of your activities, initiatives, projects, organizations that you have been involved with. Additional links or online materials are most welcome.
  2. Name a single pressing issue, question or a challenge that young people are facing in the Czech Republic, and propose a potential solution for it.

How to apply

Submit your answers via this form or via ukinczechrepublic@fco.gov.uk. You should include:

  • surname
  • name
  • email
  • nationality
  • age
  • present occupation
  • place of residence

You must submit your answers by midnight, 18 February 2024 via the above-mentioned form or email. Once submitted, you cannot edit, update, or resubmit your application. Only one entry per person. By participating in the contest you indicate that you accept of all the rules of the competition. After submission of the application, the competition participants may be publicly identified.

To participate in the competition, the participant must submit all the requested information themselves. This information will only be used for the purpose of the competition and will not be shared with third parties. The competition is not open to current employees and interns of British Embassy Prague, nor is it open to family members of such employees and interns.

Your application: format and content

Please, submit your answers via the online form mentioned above or as an email attachment in doc, docx, or pdf format. Each submission should include the name of the applicant.

Submissions must be original pieces, must not include text protected by intellectual property rights or third party’s ownership rights.

Social media

British Embassy Prague and the UK Ambassador will post updates about the competition on their social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. This may include information about the selection process, announcement of the winners, and activities with the winners.

The Embassy will contact participants by email, and they will announce the winners on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. None of these platforms are partners or sponsors of the contest.

Selection of winners

The Embassy reserves the right to discount any entry to the contest that does not fulfil the requirements of the competition.

The UK Ambassador will personally oversee the selection of participants (8–10 in total), aiming for broad diversity of location and background. 

Winners

The authors of the winning submissions will win the opportunity to work directly with the UK Ambassador during monthly discussion groups with the Ambassador. These discussions will be an opportunity to gain insight into the Embassy’s work, to develop communication and leadership skills, and to talk about the societal and political issues that young people in the Czech Republic find important. It will be held entirely online (approx. 90 minutes per session), in a combination of English and Czech, and is not paid. The participants will also have the possibility to visit some of the events organised by the Embassy in 2024.

Winners will be announced in the week of 19 February 2024, the first online meeting is to be held by the end of February (late afternoon/evening hours).

The Embassy reserves the right to make the winning entries available online, on either Embassy website and/or on social media.

The winners must respond to Embassy’s email within a week. If the winner does not accept the selection, the Embassy reserves the right to reach out to the runner-up.

The prize cannot be passed on a third person, exchanged for a different activity, or be reimbursed in monetary value.

Rights and responsibilities

  1. By selecting a participant, British Embassy Prague (hereinafter “the Embassy”) does not automatically endorse the ideas in presented in their application.
  2. The competition and the Embassy will not support any activity violating intellectual property rights and therefore reserve the right to disqualify any submission in the contest that would be in violation with these rules.
  3. Contest participants will retain all the rights to their work. At the same time, participants explicitly agree to Embassy’s use of any material related to the contest (texts from participants, photos etc.).
  4. The Embassy reserves the right to check the authenticity of the submissions and remove anyone who violates the above-mentioned rules from the contest.
  5. The Embassy reserves the right to disqualify any contestant who violates the rules of the contest.
  6. The Embassy reserves the right to change the format of the programme in case of outside circumstances prohibiting the execution of the afore-mentioned structure.
  7. The Embassy reserves the right to disqualify a person from the contest if they deem the person violated the rules of the contest, violated rules of an online platform involved in the promotion of the contest, or otherwise acted in bad faith.
  8. The Embassy reserves the right to change the process of the contest or cancel the contest. Participants agree to protect the good name of the Embassy, its parent, subsidiaries and affiliates, officials, directors, employees, trainees and agents. In case of damaging the Embassy’s interests, the participants in the contest will be responsible for all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debts; and expenses (including but not limited to legal fees) arising from (i) breaches of these official contest rules; (ii) infringement of a third party’s right, including but not limited to copyright, trademark, intellectual property, right to privacy, right of publication or other proprietary right in connection with the contest; or (iii) any claim that the contest entry has caused any harm to a third party, including financial loss. These compensation and protection obligations remain in force permanently even after the end of the contest.
  9. The Embassy will take all precautions to protect Personally Identifiable Information of the participants in the contest.
  10. The Embassy does not accept any liability or liability for any damage or injury resulting from the participation of any user in the contest or the attempt to participate in the contest or the ability or inability to upload, download or otherwise obtain information related to the contest.
  11. The Embassy does not accept any responsibility or liability for technical problems or technical failures arising in connection with the operation of the contest, including: hardware or software errors; defective computer, telephone, cable, satellite, network, electronic, wireless or internet connection or other problems with online communication; errors or limitations of any ISPs, servers, hosting providers or providers; distorted, disordered or erroneous data transmission; failure to send or receive email transmissions; lost, delayed, delayed or withheld electronic mail transmissions; complete or partial inaccessibility of the contest site for any reason; congestion of the internet network or contest site; unauthorized human intervention or other interference with the course of the contest, including but not limited to tampering, unauthorized access, theft, virus, software bugs and worms; or the destruction of any aspect of the contest or the loss, miscalculation, misdirection, inaccessibility or unavailability of the email account used in connection with the contest.
  12. Use of the contest website is at the user’s own risk. The Embassy is not liable for personal injury, property damage or loss of any kind possibly suffered on the computer equipment because of participating in the contest, using the contest website or downloading information from the contest website. By participating in the contest, the competitor relieves the Embassy of the contest of all claims arising directly or indirectly as a result of or in connection with the participation of the competitor in the contest.
  13. The Embassy is not held liable for any delay in the contest proceedings caused by external factors, such as weather, fire, strike, public health or other unforeseen circumstances.
Published 31 January 2024