Gain Creators / Outcomes

• Students have the opportunity to:
  • develop communication, decision-making, negotiation, organization and time management skills,
  • present their business concepts and enterprises to real investors and receive funding for their start-ups.
• The learning-by doing activities complement well the theory these students go through in their university courses
• Teachers become more entrepreneurial and learn more about EE
• Flexible time commitment through blended learning

Gains / Needs

Educators need:

• Practical learning-by-doing approaches in the classroom
• Easy-to-implement activities that fit well within the curriculum
• Content that is relevant and challenging for students in higher education
• Activities that will expose students to real-world situations and get them thinking constructively about the future

Target Group

Educators (teachers of higher education)

Implementation Method

Company Programme is distributed through the JA network.

• JA offices reach out to higher education institutions, telling them about the programme and/or they work through regional or national education authorities who endorse the programme towards local schools.
• Teachers register with their local JA office to participate in the programme.

Business mentors are involved in the classroom, provide training and support for educators and volunteers to deliver the programme in the classroom.

JA StartUp Programme

The Start-Up Programme gives post-secondary students (aged 18 to 30) the opportunity to experience running their own company, giving them an insight into how their talents could be used to set up in business for themselves. With the support and guidance of business mentors, the program provides entrepreneurship education for college and university students of diverse backgrounds and majors.

The Start-Up Programme encourages students to:

• give entrepreneurship a try by doing it themselves (action),
• learn and practice the business skills they need in start-ups (business competence),
• be motivated and develop a “can do” attitude,
• be visionary using their own unique skills (creativity),
• understand the surroundings of their local and global community (environment) and seek (local) business volunteers to support them. 

The combination of these major competences increases the likelihood that the students will be better prepared for the future work-life and will actually go on to start a business later on.

 In the school year 2014-2015 over 14,000 students across Europe enrolled in the programme – here is a success story from a JA Alumnus

Activities

Programme delivery through Blended Learning: 5 steps:

• Motivation & ideation
• Organising the team
• Shaping up and establishing the mini-company
• Implementation
• Competing & closing

Optional:  o evaluation and validation of the students’ knowledge through participation in national and international Competitions and Trade Fairs

Resources

• Access to a network of educators and business mentors
• JA training sessions for teachers and mentors
• JA follow-up and support

 Manpower:

• Business mentors – recruited by students and JA,
• Support staff from JA side

Pain Relievers / Solutions

• Provide ready-to-go easy-to-use materials for teachers; digital options available
• Activities that are hands-on; student-centered
• Use interaction with business mentors who bring real-world perspective when they present the content and add a ‘cool factor’
• Use the practical entrepreneurship experience as a way to build confidence, change attitudes and behaviours

Pains / Challenges

• Lack of good hands on programmes/activities in EE for this age group
• Lack of international networks
• Lack of connection between educators and the business sector