Information about Young Enterprise and Junior Achievement

Here are the links to organisations in the UK and the US that promote student-led companies in schools. In the UK the organisation is called Young Enterprise www.young-enterprise.org.uk and in the US it's called Junior Achievement and the website is www.ja.org

JA Worldwide is the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating students about workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs.

Junior Achievement programs help prepare young people for the real world by showing them how to generate wealth and effectively manage it, how to create jobs which make their communities more robust, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace. Students put these lessons into action and learn the value of contributing to their communities.

In the UK the Young Enterprise Company Programme offers students aged 15 to 19 the opportunity to set up and run their own real company over the course of one academic year, with the support and guidance of a volunteer adviser from business.

Students elect a board of directors from amongst their peers, raise share capital, market and finance a real product or service of their own choice and sell it to the public.

Through participating in the Company Programme, students develop their enterprise knowledge and understanding, skills and attributes in a business context.

They learn by doing, coping with a changing and evolving business, developing essential skills such as teamwork, communication, problem solving, managing risk, creativity, innovation and leadership.[img][/img]