Training

Examples of best practices at the international level

On the international level, we point out the following initiatives, present in many countries:

• The “Company Programme” (developed among other by JA-YE Europe in 39 countries)
• “Practice enterprises” (global network of over 7,500 enterprises)
• “Conscious entrepreneurial community schools” (promoted by the International organization of conscious entrepreneurial community schools)

The “Company Programme”
This programme is developed in Europe by JA-YE Europe “Junior Achievement Young Enterprise Europe”, NGO funded in 2001.

JA-YE Europe is dedicated to entrepreneurship education, skills for employment and financial training of young people, from primary school to university. In 2015, the network offered a wide range of programmes to more than 3.5 million young people in 39 countries.

JA-YE Europe is also a member of JA Worldwide www.jaworldwide.org. Annually, JA Worldwide operations reach more than 10 million students and engage over 400,000 business volunteers and mentors, spanning a total of 6 continents and 122 countries.

The “Company Programme” is the most famous training offer of Ja-Ye Europe and is recognised by the European Commission as the best practice in entrepreneurship education. In this programme, the participants create a mini-company supervised by a teacher and a counsellor.

This programme offers secondary school students (16 to 19) formal and informal training. On the formal side, the programme gives the possibility to participate in a real non-simulated activity. On the informal side, teachers and students benefit from the network of the participating schools. The programme also includes a series of training offers for teachers about these four major areas: confidence, competence, practice-based learning, “trendy” aspect and motivation.

The programme lasts a whole school year. It starts with teacher training. Then, students have the “mini-company” part of the programme: they define an enterprise idea, a marketing strategy and a budget and manage their company in a few months, before participating in various national and international competitions.

The competitions bring together communities and motivate teachers. JA-YE considers that they are of primary importance to make contacts with local communities and the media.

The members of the jury usually comes from the world of enterprises, from politics and from local and national education authorities. They help receive support for the projects. Several prizes are awarded to the mini-companies.

Among the teachers who have participated in the programme, 90 % claim they would recommend this educational method to their colleagues. As for students, they usually claim that “it makes school more interesting and motivating”.

Besides, it is observed that this method engenders entrepreneurs:

• The programme creates enterprises: an independent survey conducted among former participants has shown that there were 50 % more who created enterprises in comparison to the control group (12 % of former participants in the “Company Programme” in secondary school had created their own enterprise by 25 years old, against 8 % of non-participants)
• The programme creates entrepreneurial confidence: 55 % of former students who have participated in the “Company Programme” claim they have the necessary skills and knowledge to create their own enterprise should the opportunity presents itself, against 41 % of the control group.
• The programme creates future leaders: 33 % of former students who have participated in the “Company Programme” now occupy managing positions, against 25 % of the control group.

The “Company programme” implemented by JA-YE Europe was the object of an in-depth analysis in the research “Entrepreneurship Education: A road to success” (Case Study 2), presented in the introduction to the chapter.

“Practice enterprises”
The concept was developed in Germany in the years 1970. It aims to develop initiative, entrepreneurship and professional experience. A fictional enterprise is used as a practical training centre to immerse unemployed people in a real professional context.

The initiative was adopted by schools, notably for students in vocational upper secondary school because this educational method prepares them for their integration in the socioeconomic world. It can enhance the cohesion of educational teams, allow interdisciplinary work and foster the use of foreign languages, in the spirit of project-based education.

Practice enterprises respect the PRIME principle:

• Practical: practical exercises
• Realistic: students work in a realistic professional environment
• Inspirational: inspirational supervisors
• Meaningful: meaningful qualities related to the professional context
• Engaging: creates engaged and responsible employees

Practical enterprises involve all the function of real enterprises and copy their processes, products and services. All commercial services are represented (secretariat-welcome, sales, purchase, accountancy…) apart from production.

Carrying out the tasks of the various services, students learn in a practical way all the functions of a commercial enterprise. The practice enterprise studies markets, creates models, advertises, stocks up raw material, transports, stocks, plans, studies fabrication methods, sells its products, pays salaries, taxes, social security contributions...

Concretely, a class creates a virtual enterprise (retail or services) and proposes trade relations to other virtual enterprises: purchase, sales, correspondences, emails, product fairs and exhibits. The practice enterprise is integrated in a global network of over 7,500 enterprises (about forty countries) that are its suppliers and customers.

To make the practice enterprise work, the class creates an office (an “office class”) open every week. During opening times, students carries out all the operations.

The enterprise can be sponsored by a real enterprise with the same purpose, to help it become as close to reality as possible. This enterprise plays the part of an “internship supervisor” like in traditional work placement. It will help the practice enterprise by providing documents (technical sheets about its products, catalogue, market retail price …).

Practice enterprises work in national networks managed by national offices and the international network “EUROPEN-PEN”.

In Belgium for example, the national network is coordinated by COFEP – Centrale voor OefenFirma’s / Centrale pour Entreprises d’entraînement Pédagogique. This office, like those in other countries, offers many services to practice enterprises to help them stick to reality: bank, post office, tax service, accountancy office and administration office.

The national offices and the international network organise every year regional, national and international fairs in which practice enterprises can rent a stall to promote their products and make deals.

“Conscious entrepreneurial community schools” (ECEC)
This educational method developed in Quebec for about twenty years encourages students to “get into enterprise at school”, to develop good dispositions in order to integrate in an active and innovative way the socio-economic and cultural life.

This method helps students gain confidence in order to stimulate their school implication and create innovation in a responsible, autonomous and aware way. Students are brought to excellency, they work on their talents. To achieve that, they are encouraged to develop projects in interaction (and thus openness) with actors of their environments (socio-economic and cultural actors).

Students become project initiators and teachers move from knowledge providers to become a supervisor of the approach orchestrated by the students.

This educational approach is based on decompartmentalisation of school, invited to work in synergy with its community and area. It involves all school actors, the whole students and school staff. It applies to all school levels (kindergarten, primary and secondary school). Moreover, it helps noticeably reduce early school leaving and inequalities while setting students in a positive learning approach.

Concretely, it consists in adding to a few hours of every lesson projects or activities that makes the subject more lively and stimulates students’ involvement whatever their level.

For example, 2nd year primary school pupils notice homeless people in the neighbourhood. They talk about it to their teacher and think of ways to help them. They decide to give them patchwork covers. During the French class, other pupils learn how to write a letter to gather fabric. In mathematics, the pupils figure out the number of necessary covers. A local seamstress teaches them how to sew...

In French-speaking Belgium, is supported by Fondation pour l’Enseignement and ICHEC.

On the international level, this educational method is promoted by the International organization of conscious entrepreneurial community schools (OIECEC).

Online Resources

• Company ProgrammeThe “Company Programme” is the most famous training offer of Ja-Ye Europe and is recognised by the European Commission as the best practice in entrepreneurship education. In this programme, the participants create a mini-company supervised by a teacher and a counsellor.
• Practice enterprisesA fictional enterprise is used as a practical training centre to immerse unemployed people in a real professional context. The initiative was adopted by schools, notably for students in vocational upper secondary school because this educational method prepares them for their integration in the socioeconomic world.
• “EEP Ans’Champion”Example of a practice enterprise, created in 2009 by 7th vocational students of “Athénée royal” in Ans, in French-speaking Belgium
• Conscious entrepreneurial community schools This educational method developed in Quebec for about twenty years encourages students to “get into enterprise at school”, to develop good dispositions in order to integrate in an active and innovative way the socio-economic and cultural life
• Fondation pour l’enseignement Developing entrepreneurship among young people to increase their motivation to learn and to involve the youth in entrepreneurial business practices.