Teachers enrolled in the Junior Achievement entrepreneurship education program can register their student teams for the JA BizzFactory™ national business incubator until January 31, 2024! The incubator is open to all young people who wish to develop a business concept and then test it in the marketplace by launching and managing a pilot business/start-up to enter for awards.

The JA BizzFactory™ national entrepreneurship incubator is the most important component of the international Junior Achievement entrepreneurship program, aiming to develop the entrepreneurial, digital and communication skills needed for future careers and to encourage students to put the knowledge gained in the JA entrepreneurship education program into practice and move from idea to pilot business or start-up.

The incubator and competition resources are available in the entrepreneurship education course on the DreamShaper (business plan writing) and LMS JA LEARN (entrepreneurship education course) platforms. If you do not have access to these platforms, please register for the entrepreneurship education programs and then provide your school or university students with the details on how to access these platforms.

BizzFactory™ Incubator and International Entrepreneurship Competition 2024 Schedule

The Junior Achievement (JA) entrepreneurship program is the largest global entrepreneurship program for school and university students, running in over 80 countries globally and 32 countries in Europe and aiming to develop and strengthen the entrepreneurial skills of 15–30-year-olds.

In Romania, the entrepreneurship program is run in partnership with the Ministry of Education and the educational institutions that are Junior Achievement's partners during the ongoing school/academic year.

The Romanian entrepreneurship program has three components every year:

1. INSPIRE - Entrepreneurship course (Antreprenor JUNIOR™ – school students and Start UP™ – university students), the theoretical component of the program, with a hybrid version (printed and digital on the JA LEARN LMS platform), carried out in educational institutions throughout the school year and coordinated by teachers enrolled in the program and by JA.
2. PREPARE - The JA BizzFactory™ National Incubator, the practical component of the program, that aims to develop practical entrepreneurial, digital and communication skills, attitudes and competencies needed for future professions, to motivate students to apply what they have learned in the JA Entrepreneurship Education Program and go from idea to business pilot or start-up. The Incubator has two sections – School students and University students –, runs from November 10 to May 10, and uses the DREAMSHAPER™ platform.
3. SUCCEED – “Company of the Year – GEN-E" European Competition – brings together teams of young people who have a business pilot or a start-up and includes several stages, running until the European finals of July 2024 – (see schedule below). The competition is run on the GEN-E European platform.

With the support of the Romanian business community, teachers' and young people's participation in all stages of the “Company of the Year – GEN-E" European Competition in Romania is FREE of charge. Teams of school/university students who take part in stage 2 – PREPARE/Entrepreneurship Incubator – and carry out a company pilot/start-up, may, on request, have their participation equated with the compulsory school or university practice required of the students.

Teams of school and university students can enter the JA Bizzfactory Incubator and “Company of the Year – GEN-E" European Competition with business ideas in the following 10 areas:

1. Agribusiness
2. Arts, culture, media
3. Creative industries, design and crafts
4. Engineering, applied sciences, IT&C
5. Trade, import-export, e-commerce
6. Raw materials production/processing
7. Sport and outdoor
8. Social affairs
9. Education and career development
10. Tourism

The viability of the mini-company and the realism of the business plan are more important than the complexity of the product offered and its innovativeness/originality. The mini-company must register sales or the team must have a prototype (minimum viable product) for which it can demonstrate that there is demand.

The most active teams with feasible business ideas will receive prizes (details in the regulation). The “Company of the Year – GEN-E" European Competition Grand Prize will be awarded to the best pilot business in the competition: a scholarship for three members of the winning team to attend the Gen-E finals in Italy, Catania, 3-4 July 2024.

The incubator is also a school or university practice activity. Thus, we recommend that interested schools and teachers equate the students' participation with school or university practice.

At the end of the JA BizzFactory™ incubator, the jury will choose the teams that will represent Romania at the European Junior Achievement events:

• Gen-E: 2024 Company of the Year (entrepreneurship for high school students);
• Gen-E: 2024 European Enterprise Challenge (entrepreneurship for university students);
• Social Innovation Relay 2024 (social entrepreneurship for high school students).

Project organized by Junior Achievement Romania, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, and supported by: