Global Entrepreneurship Week / Bulgaria About Junior Achievement Bulgaria
Junior Achievement Bulgaria was founded in 1997. It is a member of the organization Junior Achievement Worldwide and its regional branch Junior Achievement-Young Enterprise Europe. Founded in 1919, JA Worldwide is the oldest, largest and most rapidly developing non-profit organization in the sphere of entrepreneurship education. Only during the current academic year, more than 8.3 million students in 330,000 classes, close to 300,000 volunteers in 119 countries take part in JA’s courses and programs.
Junior Achievement is a leader in offering cutting-edge programs and courses in business, economics, and entrepreneurship spirit development through educational and practical activities in economic and financial literacy, business skills, leadership, and strategies for success. The programs target young people from 6 to 25 years of age. Through JA’s programs, young people acquire practical knowledge of the business world. The activities are built around the concept of partnership and mutual influence between Junior Achievement as provider of entrepreneurship services, public schools and public authorities, and business which results in innovative ways of teaching, new businesses and better skills for young people.
In Bulgaria, Junior Achievement started with 10 pilot classes and today offers 28 educational courses, business programs, and events for all levels of the educational system – from pre-school to the university. JA Bulgaria has more than 20,000 students all over Bulgaria. JA Bulgaria’s programs are taught by 680 teachers in 330 educational institutions in 123 cities, towns and villages (data is for the 2006/2007 academic year). Since 1997 until the end of the current school year, more than 60,000 students, 582 student companies and more than 500 business consultants will have taken part in JA Bulgaria’s activities.
JA Bulgaria educates and inspires young people to value free initiative, business and economy, so that they can improve their quality of life and prosper. JA Bulgaria’s entrepreneurship programs were introduced into the curriculum of secondary schools as elective subjects in 1998 and were approved by the Ministry of Education and Science. The programs are taught both in high schools specialized in economic education and in general and vocational high schools, thus providing economic literacy not only to these students who already have knowledge about economy, finance, and business, but to the students that need it most and giving them the tools to realize their various business ideas in many different fields of activity.
Through the years JA Bulgaria proved its capacity to provide high-quality innovative entrepreneurship education throughout the whole country. Thanks to its traditionally good strategic ties to business and state institutions, the organization has a rich experience in creating public-private partnerships in support of entrepreneurship education. JA Bulgaria has very positive cooperation with the Ministry of Economy and Energy, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of State Administration, Ministry of Culture, and others; with leading Bulgarian business associations, private companies, and media. More than 40 companies support JA Bulgaria’s activities annually.
The most popular educational program that JA Bulgaria provides is “Student Company”. In the course of one academic year, the program gives students the opportunity to create and run their own enterprise and operate with real products and real money. The programme gives students the opportunity to prepare for working life through the experience of running their own company, supported by volunteer advisers from business. The students sell stock, elect officers, produce and market products or services, keep records, conduct stockholders’ meetings, and liquidate (usually returning a profit). The Company Program is recognized by the European Commission as a Best Practice in Entrepreneurship Education. A recent report conducted in 6 European countries shows that nearly 15 percent of former participants in mini-companies between the ages of 20 and 29 had started their own businesses. In Bulgaria, about 70-80 student companies on average are formed each year and compete for the prize “Best Student Company of Bulgaria” in a year-end competition in the form of a trade fair. The winner goes on to represent the country at the European finals where they challenge their peers from 40 JA-YE Europe member countries.
JA Bulgaria’s most high-profile event which always receives incredible media attention is the Manager for a Day initiative. Each year, hundreds and even thousands of students throughout the country spend a working day with managers and employees from multinational corporations, local businesses, municipal governments, international development organizations, media, etc. State authorities and business managers participate to give a start to students’ professional realization. The initiative is in harmony with the EU educational policy to give a practical orientation to education. The Manager for a Day event is designed to provide high-school students with the opportunity to experience the personal and academic demands of daily business operations. Furthermore, Manager for a Day promotes experiential student learning and fosters productive relationships among business, education and the community.
In May 2007, JA Bulgaria received JA-YE Europe’s Best Practice Award for introducing the innovative program “Youth Business” through which young entrepreneurs with good business ideas have a chance to start-up their own company by taking a special loan. Also in 2007, Mita Georgieva received JA Worldwide’s award for Teacher of the Year for her ten years of dedicated work with Junior Achievement Bulgaria and her indispensible help in creating a stable relationship between Junior Achievement and the Ministry of Education and Science. Junior Achievement Bulgaria also won the 2007 Entrepreneurship Award which JA Worldwide gives jointly with Metlife Foundation. JA Bulgaria’s CEO Milena Stoycheva was elected chair of the CEOs of all member states in JA-YE Europe.
Students and teams studying JA Bulgaria’s programs have had excellent results at the big European and international competitions of Junior Achievement. Among the biggest achievements in the last couple of years are: the first prize of Viktoria Zogova from Velingrad at the Hewlett Packard European contest for responsible business ideas in 2007; third prize of the team from Plovdiv at the 2008 European online contest “Virtual Enterprise”.Posted : 2 Months, 1 Week, 5 Hours, 25 Minutes ago | Edited : 2 Months, 1 Week, 4 Hours, 41 Minutes ago
Global activities to link all countries
In addition to thousands of activities being planned by partners , a few signature activities are designed to connect bright young minds across the globe.
Unleash It!
While there is no shortage of challenges facing the world today, countless ideas never come to the surface—leaving problems unsolved and opportunities missed—simply because no one stopped to consider them. Unleash It! uncovers these challenges—then links them to enterprising problem-solvers.
Before we can unleash the ideas of the next generation of entrepreneurs on the challenges of today, we need your help in identifying those challenges – no matter how big or how small. Anyone can post a challenge, e-mail your challenges to challenges [at] unleashingideas [dot] org
Speed Network the Globe
Networking is a skill that serves everyone—whether they ever consider starting an entrepreneurial venture or not. Organize a speed networking session in your community and enable local young people to sharpen their networking skills—talking to each other, local entrepreneurs, potential investors, community leaders, or anyone else interested in learning from – and sharing with – others. E-mail cspavin [at] unleashingideas [dot] org to learn more about what you can do to help network aspiring entrepreneurs.
