Girls Go Circular: Learning Green Skills Through STEM Challenges

Girls Go Circular is an EU-funded education initiative coordinated by EIT RawMaterials with the support of the EIT Community. Since its launch in 2020, it has equipped more than 90,000 learners across Europe, the majority girls aged 14–19, with green, digital and entrepreneurial skills. The programme uses the Circular Learning Space, an online platform offering interactive learning on topics such as circular fashion, robotics, e-waste, smart cities and artificial intelligence. Students work in teams on hands-on challenges that connect STEM learning with real sustainability issues, such as mapping the raw materials in a smartphone, creating campaigns to cut single-use plastics or designing apps to manage a smart school garden. Teachers report that this approach boosts motivation and confidence, while survey data show that 80% of learners feel more inspired to develop digital and sustainability competences after participating.

Girls Go Circular’s model is rooted in real-world application. Students learn key concepts and immediately put them into practice through collaborative projects, hackathons and role-plays. The result is not just theoretical knowledge but visible outcomes that can be shared with peers and communities. Because the Circular Learning Space is open-source and available in 27 languages, teachers and students can adapt activities to their own contexts and integrate them into lessons, project weeks or extracurricular clubs. This flexibility allows schools to embed the EU’s GreenComp competences, including valuing sustainability, systems thinking, futures literacy and collective action, into everyday learning.

Graduates of the programme can apply to join the Ambassador Programme, a year-long leadership opportunity for young people who want to take their skills further. Ambassadors spend around four hours per month promoting green and digital skills locally, mentoring younger learners, and representing Girls Go Circular at workshops and events across Europe. The programme develops public speaking, teamwork and project management skills while creating a network of young role models who champion sustainability and innovation in their own communities.

Every year Girls Go Circular also organises the Women & Girls in STEM Forum, Europe’s flagship event on gender equality in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Each edition highlights a new theme, in 2025 the focus is cybersecurity, and brings together students, educators, policymakers and industry leaders. The Forum showcases student projects, hosts live pitches from finalists of the annual Student Challenge and sparks debate about the future of digital and green skills. By giving young people a visible platform, it helps break stereotypes, strengthens networks and encourages girls to see themselves as future leaders in STEM.

Girls Go Circular combines sustainability learning with practical action, leadership and visibility. It is preparing a new generation to tackle climate change, digitalisation and social transformation all at once, offering a model that can be replicated and scaled across the European Education Area. 

Find out more at https://eit-girlsgocircular.eu/ or contact girlsgocircular@eitrawmaterials.eu.