Final Report of the Expert Group - European Commission - Europa

will be capable of directing the learning process entirely by themselves, with full autonomyand responsibility. They will have more freedom in arranging meetings with businessadvisors. The programme will be less structured, and there will be limited hands-on guidance.This also means that the operational environment is less protected, and that the business riskincreases. Student company programmes at this level of education need to be even closer toreal life, and may often end up with starting a real company. Incubators may also accompanystudents to put their business idea into practice.Junior Enterprises at university – JADE (European Confederation of Junior Enterprises)Junior Enterprises are non-profit associations entirely managed by students, integratingknowledge from universities with practical business experience by running consultingprojects for companies in various sectors.Students acquire soft skills like entrepreneurial spirit, team-working, creativity, presentationskills, project management. Members of Junior Enterprises perform an extensive range ofservices (business and technical studies, etc.) for different kinds of companies in all sectors.Possible bridges and linksBridges could be created to make it easier for students to pass from programmes applied insecondary schools to programmes at university level.Running a mini-enterprise in secondary school can be a very effective introduction toentrepreneurship programmes in higher education, where setting up a small business – duringor after the studies - is clearly one of the objectives. These programmes require students tolearn how to draft a real business plan, and those who have gone through a companyprogramme during their school time are certainly better equipped for this task. Also, contactsmade with businesses during secondary school may be useful for students at tertiary levelwhen engaging in research and completing their projects.With a “signed certificate of successful completion” from a recognized enterprise educationprovider at secondary level, students could apply for a more advanced level of enterpriseprogramming at universities provided that those higher institutions recognize the certificates.Alternatively, an examination could be used in order to test students’ grasp of thefundamentals of running an enterprise, which students could then present to their postsecondaryinstitution.In Latvia, students having experienced the whole cycle of a student company (fromregistration to liquidation) receive a Junior Achievement Latvia certificate, and an agreementhas been signed with some universities to take this certificate into account in the enrolment ofstudents.In Austria, the Practice Firm programme is applied in two Economic universities, andbusiness cooperation is encouraged between practice firms operated by students at secondaryand at university level. These universities also offer basic training for future practice firmteachers, in cooperation with further training institutes for teachers.At European level, two major networks promoting student company programmes insecondary and in tertiary education, JA-YE Europe and JADE (coordinating JuniorEnterprises in higher education), have recently established a cooperation agreement.30