1. Joining entrepreneurial students
and the world of business:
a case study on the European StartUP Program in Romania
Lucian Gramescu
Operations Manager
Junior Achievement Romania
2. Junior Achievement Romania
Since 1993, Junior Achievement Romania (JA Romania) implements programs for students of various
levels under the slogan "Invest in education!". JA Romania is part of Junior Achievement Worldwide,
USA and JA-YE, Europe.
Our mission is to inspire and prepare the young generation to succeed in a market economy.
Results 2011 - 2012
•153 000 students
•2400 educators
•1100 educational institutions
•360 locations
•Over 2500 participation in international competitions and events
•69 programs, competitions, events and projects
•5000 hours of classroom business volunteering provided by professionals and entrepreneurs
• More than 50 partners from the business community supporting our programs every year
3. WHAT
The StartUp Programme gives post-secondary students (aged 19 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.
HOW? The StartUP program difference
Bridging the gap between:
•formal education
•actually launching a business
4. EUROPEAN DIMENSION
16 countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France,
Macedonia, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain,
Switzerland, UK.
Europe Enterprise Challenge – annual final
6. STARTUP PROGRAM IN ROMANIA
Initially launched in 2005
National development in 2009 – 2012 (3 academic years) with:
•900 students in 21 universities in Romania
•collaborating professors in 13 universities in Romania
•140 business pilots successfully enrolled in the national competition
•80 business volunteers providing advice on strategy, marketing,
budgeting and legal issues
7. ELEMENTS OF THE PROGRAM IN ROMANIA
The START! Business program followed the international model, providing
the following components:
•Learning materials on business planning
•Collaboration platform: students, coordinating professors and business
volunteers used a common virtual space to share documents and
communication
•National and European Final
•E-learning: video and text case studies, learning materials, expert
webinars
8. E-LEARNING COMPONENT
E-learning component brought stakeholders together in the competition
stage:
•Collaboration platform: students, coordinating professors and business
volunteers used a common platform to share documents and
communication and transparently manage pilot businesses
•E-resources: video and text case studies, learning materials
•Expert webinars on Blue Ocean Strategy and Innovation and Financial
Management
9. OBSERVATIONS
Based on the experience of the past three editions, JA Romania has
upgraded the program with the following observations in mind:
•Students need more (practical) knowledge in general, especially in
business management and startup finance
•Learning by doing is the most powerful entrepreneurship education
methodology, but students need specific tools and a safe environment to
experiment moving from “thinking” to “doing”
•Students need to learn more about working with mentors, as well as
identifying and approaching mentors of their own choice
10. STARTUP PROGRAM 2012 - 2013
The current edition of the program will bring:
•The StartUP entrepreneurship course, available for educators in all
universities in Romania as a means to provide solid business knowledge
through top quality learning materials and methodology
•The BizzFactory National Competition to provide a hands-on learning
experience for the most motivated students
•Expert webinar for students AND teachers
11. THE STARTUP ENTREPRENEURSHIP THE STARTUP ENTREPRENEURSHIP
COURSE SEMINAR
Business
Pilot Company or Management
Simulator
12. BIZZFACTORY COMPANY OF THE YEAR
NATIONAL COMPETITION Bucharest, May 2012
Student teams
bringing
real proof EUROPE ENTERPRISE CHALLENGE
that there is Brussels, July 2012
market demand
for their
innovative business ideas
