Develop new skills. Meet new people. Make the world a better place. All in one team.

PRIME MOVERS provides full scholarships to a hands-on leadership program for young people passionate about social and environmental change.

This is without a doubt the place to be for youth development and social entrepreneurship. What is happening here is really special, and we are happy to have a close cooperation with PRIME MOVERS.

Davorin Barudzija

Recruitment manager, Teach for Austria

Get notified before the next application deadline

Apply now

Quick info

Find out if this program is right for you

Who can apply and how?You must have at least 2 semesters left in your university studies. You only need your CV to apply. Cover letter is optional.
When is the application deadline?The next application deadline is 28. October 2021.
What's the cost?Scholarship holders do not pay for the program. They apply what they learned by volunteering in our social businesses, 5-10 hours a week in our office instead. (less during exam weeks)
When do the workshops take place?Every Saturday at 12:00 (excluding academic holidays)

How the program works

Develop your skills

You will receive one workshop per week, every Saturday at 12:00 (excl. academic holidays)

List of workshops >

Have an impact

You will volunteer 5-10 hours a week in impactful projects, applying your new knowledge.

Our projects >

How the program works

Develop your skills

You will receive one workshop per week, every Saturday at 12:00 (excl. academic holidays)

List of workshops >

Have an impact

You will volunteer 5-10 hours a week in impactful projects, applying your new knowledge.

Our projects >

Find out if you're eligible in 15 seconds

Answer 5 simple yes-or-no questions

If you cannot see the form, please click here.

Why you should join

Skills that last a lifetime

It is no secret that we have a lot of workshops ready for you. What is not usually obvious to younger students, is that the content that we teach is often things that you cannot find in your studies at university. Scroll down to see the full list of skills you will learn during your journey here.

Supportive community

We understand that growth and comfort do not co-exist. Being surrounded by a group of like-minded people as you learn and develop, and feel that support is crucial for your development. And of course, having some fun along the way too of course!

Stand out of the crowd

These are things that you cannot learn at university or by searching on Google. It’s about someone seeing your potential, and providing constant support and direction to enable you to achieve it. Click on Read More to hear the story of one such experience from our members, and how she confronted her fear of public speaking.

Explore, and develop your passion

Do you know what you want to do after university? Have you developed your passion? The program allows you to not only connect with many people with new inspiration, but also allows you to carry out a large variety of different projects, where you can identify what you like or dislike.

Build your network early on

Whether it is going to meet ups together, attending conferences or our Partnerships workshop, we create plenty of opportunities for you to integrate into local and international ecosystems, where you have a chance to build successful relationships for your future.

Our alumni

Here is what some of our alumni are up to nowadays

Martina Beleva

Former Sustainability Officer at London School of Economics (LSE). Current MSc student in Sustainability Policy at LSE.

Anna Hehenberger

Economist at Moment Magazine, ein progressives Medium zu den Themen Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft im weitesten Sinne.

Radka Svobodová

Research Business Partner at Climate-KIC, The EU’s main climate innovation initiative

Our projects are tackling challenges in

Waste and food waste

Gender equality

Digitalisation

Application process

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to send us a message on our Facebook page

Apply

Written application with your CV. The time commitment to be a part of our team is 5-10 hours a week at our office and home office, more flexible during exam weeks.

Apply now

See if you are eligible

Application deadline

The application deadline is 28. October 2021. Click below to get reminded before the application deadline.

Get reminded before the application deadline

Personal interview

We will set up personal interviews with potential inductees between now and 3. November 2021.

Results

Results will be communicated via the email you provided in your application form. Our onboarding weekend is on 5.-7. November online. Please advise that all acceptances are conditional on the attendance of this weekend.

“

PRIME MOVERS helps you find your strengths and use them to make the world a better place.

Daniel Zenz

Product management for our social startup: kindby

“

PRIME MOVERS helps you find your strengths and use them to make the world a better place.

Daniel Zenz

Product management for our social startup: kindby

Teams you can apply for (Positions)

You can apply for more than one team. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to send us a message on our Facebook page.

Social business

Want to find out what a growing social startup looks like from the inside? This team is the right one for you.

Roles you can take in this team are: marketing, product management, IT.

Click here for the detailed description of the job descriptions

As a close team, you will mainly focus on building our products and services and finding customers in order to test and grow “kindby”. While the internal communication is in English, the external communication and marketing will be done in German. No previous experience is necessary. The PRIME MOVERS program provides you with all the training you will need.

ROLES
– Marketing and community building including content marketing to educate, video marketing content, social media management, establishing funnels, growth hacking, press releases and more.

– Product management: Responsible for establishing the product and the entire customer journey including stock management, customer service (Account management), shipping and handling.

– IT: Updating our website, managing the online store

Social innovation

Want to organise impactful events on systems change, and grow our community? Then, this team is right for you.

Roles you can take in this team are: business development, session and speaker management, community building.

Click here for the detailed description of the job descriptions

As a close team, you will mainly focus on research about the three issues we are focusing on, organizing events and creating and maintaining our community. Community building team will largely work in English. While internal communication is done in English, the Business development team will largely work in German and therefore required a minimum of B2 level in German, while native German speakers are preferred.

No previous experience is necessary. The PRIME MOVERS program provides you with all the training you will need.

ROLES
– Business development: Finding sponsors, finding marketing partners, finding all partners (except speakers) that create an added value to the conference. Finalising all partners that create costs and revenues, as well as making all final business decisions on pricing, and budgeting.

– Session building and speaker management: Finalising all topics and ideas we will cover in the sessions of ONE DAY 2021, as well as all the relevant speakers all meet-ups and conference

– Community building: Creating and implementing an online and offline marketing strategy for the conference and the meet-ups.

Social education

Think children should be educated on social and environmental issues? Here is your chance!

Roles you can take in this team are: product designer, marketing/partnerships and IT.

Click here for the detailed description of the job descriptions

As a close team, you will mainly focus on research about the three issues we are focusing on, along with creating and delivering the workshops we have to children aged 12-18. While internal communication is in English, most of the work done in this department requires at least a B2 level of German.

No previous experience is necessary. The PRIME MOVERS program provides you with all the training you will need.

ROLES
– Product designer: Creating lesson plans about waste, gender equality and responsible digitalisation with incorporated feedback

– Marketing and Partnerships: Partnering with teachers to use or see the product and give the feedback to product design and IT.

– IT: Builds and maintains the online platform

Human Resources

Want to find and handpick who joins our team? Want to try a management role? Then, this one is for you.

Roles you can take in this team are: talent and culture management, business development/recruitment manager.

Click here for the detailed description of the job descriptions

There is a large part of this team that is to do with management. The HR team is a great place to start if you want to keep your options open for being a COO in a startup in the future. This team really understands how our organisation functions, what motivates people, and gives you a unique chance to try out many ideas and see the result of it in the rest of the organisation. From shaping the culture, to making management decisions, it’s a challenging team, but a highly rewarding one.

No previous experience is necessary. The PRIME MOVERS program provides you with all the training you will need.

ROLES
– Talent and culture management: Managing the performance and the culture of the organisation alongside the President.

– Business development/Recruitment manager: Making long-term partnerships relevant for finding the right people for the program. Creating and implementing marketing strategies for the same goal.

Finance and Legal

This team focuses on fundraising and making sure that we are fully compliant with the legal obligations of our entity.

Click here for more info

Finance and Legal team is responsible for making sure the wheels are turning in terms of finances and legal obligations. This team will be filling out funding applications, making pitches and exploring other opportunities to raise funds for our ventures and the organization as a whole.

Inductees of this department must have German as their native language.

No previous experience is necessary. The PRIME MOVERS program provides you with all the training you will need.

Hear about the program from us

Click on the Facebook logo in the bottom right corner to watch it on Facebook. There, you can find timestamps that allows you to skip to each team.

If you cannot see the video below, please click here

“

For me, being part of PRIME MOVERS means to be part of an amazing team, to learn and grow together and to change social issues from a different and a more holistic approach.

Katharina Heinz

Social Education team

“

The most valuable thing you can have in your younger years is a safe-space where you can try things out, fail, learn and grow. PRIME MOVERS offers exactly that and gives you the tools so you can make the world a better place.

Daniel Zenz

Social Business team

“

PRIME MOVERS not only made me learn a lot about start-ups, sustainability and social businesses so far but also helped me develop myself personally regarding my interests and strengths. I like the team spirit, supporting each other and creating some great memories at team events and also that everyone is respected the way they are.

Alina Schütz

Social Business team

“

There are loads of reasons I like about this special environment we call PRIME MOVERS. It is familiar, and at the same time professional. It is challenging your mindset, your habits and your limits. It is about trust, it is about the people. It is not easy, it is worth it.

Philipp Steininger

Social Education team

“

In order to reach a common goal and bring about change, a supporting and passionate team is the solid foundation. All actions are interconnected, starting at the very root and working together, step by step. That’s just one of the million things I learnt in being part of PRIME MOVERS.

Nina Ameseder

Social Innovation team

“

Being a part of PRIME MOVERS is not only about the new knowledge and skills you will acquire, but also about the team. You will meet great people who love what they are doing and who will constantly inspire you to be the best version of yourself.

Sabrina Epple

Social Business team

As seen in

The PRIME MOVERS program in detail

Your year of personal development, professional development and social impact

What you will be learning

In the PRIME MOVERS Program, we provide workshops on personal and professional skills. Click below to see the full list of workshops you will go through.

List of workshops

Offered until March:
Systems thinking
Event Management
Organizational strategy (OKR)
Social media marketing strategy
Pitch Training
Productivity and Time Management
Email marketing

Maybe including (not guaranteed):
Adobe Illustrator II
Business modelling
Branding
Content Marketing strategy
Go-To-Market Strategy
Growth Hacking
Graphic Design and Adobe Illustrator

How you will have impact

during the program

Meanwhile, you will apply what you learn directly in our meaningful projects on a volunteer basis, spending 5-10 hours a week at our office. This could be helping start-up a social business, building communities and finding innovative solutions or teaching children about the responsible consumption, gender equality or challenges of digitalisation like data privacy, echo chambers and more.

How likely are you to recommend this workshop to others?

We take anonymous feedback after every workshop (weekly)

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

4,8/5 in the past 12 months

After your year...

Here are some of your options

Keep doing awesome things

Inductees can stay with PRIME MOVERS, and apply for middle management positions to test out their leadership skills.

Join our alumni pool

You can join our alumni community and make life long friends!

Apply to be a fellow

After becoming an alumnus, you can apply to be a fellow. This is an additional program that leads to opportunities to get employed, become a co-founder in our initiatives and more.

All that and more: your journey will include learning these changemaker skills

You will be directly or indirectly have opportunities to learn these changemaker skills in a hands-on setting.

Self-confidence

Perseverance

Self-regulation

Self-awareness

Action orientation

Innovation and creativity

Critical thinking

Empathy

Reflection

Communication

Emotional and social intelligence

Problem solving

Leadership

Some other opportunities that we have provided in the past

These are not guaranteed to be provided, but there are a lot of opportunities to take advantage of outside of the program too!

Pitching in Edinburgh, partying in Krakow

Here are some paid trips for our members to take part in pitching kindby in the largest clean tech competition in the world, and a weekend trip in Krakow with Austrian and local social startups. Yes, drinks were had. HR won’t let us upload those photos though.

Exclusive workshops from other organisations

Here is a guarantee. You will never run out of things to learn here. As a part of incubation processes we’ve had, inductees had a chance to attend workshops from leading experts about social entrepreneurship, soft skills and more.

Networking opportunities

We don’t mean to boast, but we do get some invitations… These may or may not be exclusive, or may or may not include free tickets to large conferences. We can’t say more, but we understand the value of networking. We also understand that it is awkward by yourself. So, we go together!

“

“PRIME MOVERS is the right place to combine all my passions and work on important projects with people that have a similar mindset.”

Maria Ozheredova

Human Resources team for PRIME MOVERS

“

PRIME MOVERS is the right place to combine all my passions and work on important projects with people that have a similar mindset.

Maria Ozheredova

Human Resources team for PRIME MOVERS

Applications are open now until 28. October 2021

Sign up for our newsletter to get a reminder, and contact us on our Live Chat function or on our Facebook page if you have any questions.

Apply now

Download our Culture Book

Get notified before the application deadline

Wondering what a workshop looks like?

Check out a more in-depth description of what our branding workshop looked like in the past.

Branding workshop from the PRIME MOVERS program

A more in depth look into the PRIME MOVERS program The branding workshop is held in the first semester of the PRIME MOVERS program. It focuses on what good and great brands do, and how to create a strategy for creating a brand for your social business. What it is Branding can be divided into...

Branding workshop from the PRIME MOVERS program

PRIME MOVERS is the right place to be for future changemakers to grow and have an impact. Keep up the good work!

Rudolf Dömötör

Director, WU Gründungszentrum

Get notified before the next application deadline

Apply now

What makes us different

You learn relevant skills for now and for the future

Currently, are you learning about emotional intelligence? What about decision-making? Critical thinking? These are some of the most in-demand skills for the future according to the World Economic Forum. The PRIME MOVERS program includes aspects of all these skills and more.

You learn by doing

Group work and presentations are not what we do here. Here is how it goes. On Saturday you are learning about digital marketing. On Monday you have admin rights to our social media channels. We delegate, guide and empower all our scholarship holders, and allow you to learn by doing in a safe environment.

You are not just a number here

Do you feel like that sometimes? Our teams are carefully selected and limited to smaller groups, where we are personally invested in your growth and development process throughout the program and beyond.

You approach world's challenges, systemically

Complex problems cannot be addressed linearly. How do we address world’s most challenging problems? We think it is rooted in systems thinking, and everything we do is rooted in this way of thinking. Don’t worry if you haven’t heard about it before. Just have a look at our blog section to read more about it.

Our culture

Who are we? How do we work? What do we do?
Get the behind-the-scenes that will help you with your application by downloading our culture book.

Download our Culture Book

Frequently asked questions

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to send us a message on our Facebook page

What happens after I apply?

We go through your application, if interested, call you for a 1-on-1 interview. After that, we will email you with your interview results. If accepted, you will attend our onboarding weekend, which is a full weekend full of workshops and fun activities designed to ensure a smooth entrance to the program. Your attendance to the onboarding weekend is compulsory and your acceptance is always conditional on your attendance to this weekend. For dates of the weekend for your application period, please scroll up to the Application Process section of this page.

When does my year start?

PRIME MOVERS accepts two cohorts a year, one in October, and one in March.

Your year starts at the day after the onboarding weekend you first attend and lasts until the onboarding weekend you attend.

For e.g. your first onboarding weekend could be 25-28. March 2020. Your year starts on 29. March 2020, and ends 29. March 2021.

Can you receive ECTS credits for the workshops in the program?

No, currently this is not possible. However, we do provide certificates after completing the program.

How much is the program worth? Is it free?

The PRIME MOVERS program is worth EUR 4000+ with approximately 15 workshops. Every semester, the PRIME MOVERS team recruits new scholarship holders based on a cultural fit. Scholarship holders do not pay for the program. They apply what they learned by volunteering in our social businesses, 5-10 hours a week instead. (less during exam weeks)

Are there rules of attendance in the program?

Yes. The content of the workshops are very practical and directly applicable to your weekly work. Failure to attend often makes your work a lot more challenging for you and the rest of your team.

Therefore, during the program, inductees are permitted to miss one (1) workshop in the semester. In the case of missing two (2) workshops, inductees will fail to receive a certificate of attendance from PRIME MOVERS. In the case of missing more workshops, inductees will be sent to Human Resources to be relieved from their duties of the organization. If there are extraordinary circumstances related to health, the Human Resources team along with the President will come to a decision, taking into account the extraordinary circumstances.

Do I get a certificate for the workshops I've attended?

Yes! If you have abided by our rules of attendance in the program, you will get a certificate with the list of workshops you’ve attended at the end of the program. If you choose to complete the fellowship program after your year, you become a fellow of PRIME MOVERS and will receive another certificate signifying your fellowship.

Can I leave the program any time?

Yes, you are not required to stay in the program for the whole program. However, you are advised to make an exit after the probation period (first six weeks), and not in the middle of the year.

When do you hold the workshops of the program?

The workshops are held every Saturday at 12:00 noon, except during school holidays according to the academic calendar of the University of Economics and Business (WU Wien). All workshops take 3 hours, split between input and application.

What is meant by 5-10 hours a week?

Includes the 3 hour weekly meeting with your team that is compulsory and the rest of the work is done online during COVID-19, and in our office afterwards. For the rest of the time, you can choose when you’d like to work. Totally up to you!

Can I try out the program?

Yes. Once accepted, the scholarship holders go through a probation period for the first 6 weeks of their time in the program. After the six weeks, the scholarship holders and PRIME MOVERS mutually decide if there is a good fit between the inductee and the program. If you are not satisfied with the program, you may leave after the probation period as well.

If you’d like to try a workshop before the program, please sign up on our newsletter. We often provide a free workshop before each recruitment deadline where you can come by and have a look for yourself and meet us.

Do I have to work from an office? Can I work remotely?

Usually, you are expected to work from our office, however you can choose when you will be there every week according to your schedule. Due to COVID regulations, this changes from time to time.

What are changemaker skills?

According to Ashoka, a changemaker is “someone who is taking creative action to solve a social problem.” “…although these skills are essential to our thriving, they are almost entirely absent from the educational experience of most young people, with often a narrowing focus on reading, maths and the acquisition of academic grades.”

These skills can be categories in these 13 areas: Self-confidence, Perseverance, Self-regulation, Self-awareness, Action orientation, Innovation&creativity, Critical thinking, Empathy, Reflection, Communication, Emotional and social intelligence, Problem solving, and Leadership.

The PRIME MOVERS program includes direct or indirect opportunities to learn all of these skills.