"Millennium Chance" 2005 - we know the winners

The Jury also recognised Magdalena Ziemczonek and Karol Borkowski from Politechnika Gdańska as well as Grzegorz Wierzbicki from Akademia Ekonomiczna w Poznaniu for their ideas regarding innovative solutions in banking.
Moreover appreciation was shown to Zhanna Martyniuk from SGH w Warszawie for proposed actions towards good corporate citizenship. Wojciech Kawecki from SGH w Warszawie and Małgorzata Drwięga from Akademia Medyczna w Warszawie were specially mentioned for their work "Działaj Mille" – a very well prepared employee volunteering project.
 
Maciej Mizgalski in his work "4:credo" proposed a business plan of a company preparing promotion campaigns for small businesses as well as creating and producing advertising materials. The Jury appreciated i.a. the innovative approach to the market situation and the possibility of reacting quickly to customers' needs by resorting to advanced IT. Moreover this proposal is a good example for college students planning to set up their own business.
 
In the work of Dariusz Grochowski devoted to biometrics (identification of persons with use of biological features e.g.: fingerprint, shape of hand) in banking; the Jury appreciated the quality of the presentation and feasibility of applying the idea in practice. The project of Anna Kawalska and Urszula Kieszczyńska entitled "Meetings with practitioners" is an interesting way of involving employees of the bank in educational meetings with secondary school students.
 
Participation in the "Millennium Chance" competition and workshop sessions is an opportunity for college students and graduates to acquire unique skills, facilitating the start of a professional career.
During the MilleWeekend the finalists presented their ideas and the choice of the best ones of them was made on 14 May 2005 by the Competition Chapter, comprised of representatives of the Management Board of Bank Millennium as well as experts from various areas. A representative of the Corporate Governance Forum was also invited to sit in the Jury of the S-Mille competition.
 
MilleInkubator is an opportunity to raise funds to start an own business. All it takes is to present the business idea to Bank Millennium and the Bank looks at it applying criteria, which banks use with companies. Millennium analysts assess the business plan and the businessman-to-be gets feedback on what might have to be improved in the document, for it to be accepted by creditors. In this year's edition most of the works were sent by young people from northern Poland, e.g. from Szczecin and Gdynia. Projects submitted to the competition included i.a. concepts of running a guesthouse for elderly and disabled persons, sale of electronic textbooks and artistic design services.
 
The Bank targets MilleInnovation at creative people, full of ideas for change, which may soon be used in banking. The ideas on using advanced technical solutions in the banking sector were dominated this year by concepts to make unique use of the electronic data transfer technique and digital technology for person identification. During the finals the works were assessed from the point of view of innovation, financial benefits, service quality improvement after implementation and feasibility of implementation.
 
S-Mille (Corporate Governance) was inspired by growing commitment of companies to community work and help to the needy. Students were asked to prepare proposals of actions that could be taken by the bank's employees as volunteers. Close to 200 students participated in stage 1 and 62 persons qualified for stage 2. Most of the ideas concerned education of children and the youth as well as unemployed persons. Moreover there were also programmes to support orphanages, hospices and animal shelters. It turned out that the competition participants have a very good idea of the community needs in their regions and even of specific schools, aid centres or community organisations.
 
 
______________________________________________
Participants in the educational programmes of Bank Millennium are college students and graduates from all over Poland. This year most of the participants came from Warsaw, Katowice and Szczecin, 75% of them were ladies. Students of public colleges dominated: 60% were or are students of universities, 25% in economic academies and 15% - technical schools. Only 5% of participants were taking courses in private colleges. 
 
For several years now Bank Millennium has been actively taking part in arranging internships and numerous trainee programmes for college students and graduates in the "Come and Grow with us" programme. During workshop sessions in colleges the students take part in training about recruitment interviews, candidate assessment (Assessment Centre), techniques for creativity development and introducing innovations.
 
Competitions and meetings in school are one of the key forms of co-operation between Bank Millennium and young people. Most participants in the "People Grow" Management Competencies Development Programme in fact start their adventure with Bank Millennium by participating in the educational programmes. The best have a job waiting for them as well as career opportunities in the International Millennium Group. Every year approximately 15 000 young people approach the bank, looking for internships, trainee programmes, participation in professional development programmes and jobs.