A significant victory was reached by the Top 20 finalist schools from eight provinces, as Samsung Electronics South Africa wrapped up its 2025 Solve for Tomorrow Design Thinking Workshops. A key component of Phase 2 of the competition, which took place from April 10th to May 30th, brought together some of the best young minds in the nation to work together and create paper prototypes of their concepts.
Samsung’s Initiative to Cultivate Future South African Innovators
Human-centered design, critical thinking, and cooperative problem-solving were all emphasized in the practical workshops, which focused on the main theme of “Infrastructure and Safety.” Students received practical collaborative instruction from Samsung workers serving as mentors, preparing them for the competition’s future prototype creation and presentation phase.
Samsung Electronics’ Corporate Social Responsibility Manger in South Africa, Lefa Makgato, was extremely pleased with the workshops’ results. “It was amazing to see how well the school learners and their educators that participated in this year’s Design Thinking Workshops responded to their assigned mentors and the experience as a whole,” Makgato said. She went on to say that the experience was interesting and very helpful for the learning design processes of both instructors and students.
Samsung believes that the overall goals of the Solve for Tomorrow competition are being effectively met through these sessions. Since its launch, the competition has sought to improve skills and encourage a growth mentality. Crucially, this experience has pushed learners’ viewpoints, promoted self-directed learning, and given mentors a chance to deliver insightful criticism.
Key aspects of the Design Thinking workshops included:
- Skills Development: Students improved their ability to convert their concepts into workable answers to issues facing the community.
- Human-Centered Design: The seminars placed a strong emphasis on comprehending user demands in order to develop solutions that tackle practical problems.
- Cognitive and Structured Processes: Participants gained knowledge of organized methods for coming up with original solutions to problems.
- Collaboration and Communication: The sessions enhanced communication skills and promoted teamwork, both of which are critical for the effective development of projects.
- Prototype and Communication: Students were effectively prepared for the competition’s next stage, where they will create and showcase their prototypes, thanks to the workshops.
- Inspiration and Motivation: The goal of the sessions was to help students develop an innovative and problem-solving mindset by urging them to ‘think, speak, and act like designers.’
- Support for Teachers: The workshops went above and beyond, giving teachers the resources and direction they needed to help their students during the next stage of the prototype development.
Samsung has reaffirmed its commitment to closing the STEM education gap in South Africa by producing creative, socially conscious problem-solvers, and it is certain that the solutions created by students participating in the “Solve for Tomorrow” Design Thinking Workshops will have a major positive impact on their communities.
