Young Innovators Shine in the 2025 Apps for Good Showcase

Technology education charity, Apps for Good, proudly hosted its annual celebration for young tech innovators in June 2025. The event showcased the best student-created app ideas developed through the charity’s free courses. All apps centred around three themes – social action, climate change and AI for good.

Apps for Good map courses to UK KS3 computing curriculums – although they are adaptable for other ages. Through independent learning, students draw on their own lived experiences to develop tech solutions to tackle real-world problems.

Apps for Good celebrates the next generation of tech innovators

This year’s showcase saw 220 student submissions, which were reviewed an impressive 4,885 times by 260 industry volunteers. This helped to identify the top 16 teams, who then pitched their ideas to a panel of judges. All teams received personalised feedback to help them develop and refine their ideas further.

Celebrating standout student ideas

In the ‘Ethical Innovators’ category, supported by digital transformation company EPAM Systems, the standout idea was Cedars Uniform Marketplace – a ‘gap in the market’ app idea that helps parents and students find and donate pre-loved school uniforms. Judges praised it as “a huge opportunity to help a lot of people across the country and internationally.” 

Helping Hands For Kids was crowned the favourite in the global financial services company BNY’s category, ‘Resilient Solutions’. The app aims to empower young learners with vital resources for a better future. 

One team member said: “We witnessed firsthand how many people struggle to access basic resources. This realisation sparked a passion within us to create a solution that could bridge the gap and empower those in need.”

In the ‘Future Founders’ category, featuring judges from The Hg Foundation, Spectris Foundation, Balanced Impact and Super Being Labs, SkillSphere was selected as the favourite. The judges thought the idea was carefully researched and the team clearly understood their chosen target audience. 

The team commented: “We are three 14-year-olds and we’re able to make something like this – it’s actually really incredible. Imagine the potential – as a society, as a nation, as a planet – we have.”

In the ‘Climate Changers’ category, supported by OVO Foundation, two teams were crowned. The judge’s favourite, Litterific, presented an innovative idea to help communities reduce litter and pollution. 

People’s Choice Award

Meanwhile, the ‘People’s Choice Award,’ based on 3,736 public votes, went to Eco Royale. This clever app idea inspired climate action and change through gamification. 

Presented by a passionate trio of students, they explained: “A lot of young people want to help, but the truth is most don’t know where to start. We felt that this app was like a great way to gamify the experience and let younger children be able to help.” 

Natalie Moore, chief executive officer at Apps for Good praised the team, adding: “This team’s innovative idea turns fun, educational challenges into real-world environmental impact. It brilliantly tackles environmental inaction by turning sustainable habits into exciting, achievable quests.”

To read more about Apps for Good’s 2025 Showcase, click here.