The largest European Festival of Youth Entrepreneurship – GEN E – will be held from 2 to 4 July in Catania at the Benedictine Monastery and the Church of San Niccolò. Organized by Junior Achievement Europe and Junior Achievement Italia, the event rewards the development of financial and entrepreneurial skills of students from over 40 European countries. Thousands of young people aged 15 and over will present their mini-companies to compete for the title of JA Europe Company of the Year, for the best mini-business created by students in their final years of high school, and JA Europe Innovation of the Year, for the best university startup. Not only that: it is concrete proof that the use of new technologies and innovative teaching methods can allow young people to create original ideas, as well as help them bridge the gap between the skills required in the world of work and the skills possessed at the end of their school career.
At each edition, Gen-E brings together over 1,000 young entrepreneurs, their teachers, businesses, leading institutions and policy makers from across Europe. The competing teams were selected from over 400,000 male and female students who took part in the programs of the non-profit Junior Achievement association in the 2023-24 school year. In three days of events, conferences, pitches, stands and games, young men and women from different countries have the opportunity to discuss, get to know each other, create networks of relationships and meet companies that could represent their future work. The detailed Gen-E program is available on this page.
“Bringing Gen-E to Catania is the result of the commitment of a large ecosystem that JA Italia has created both at a national and territorial level to be able to trigger a change in the school-to-work transition paths and in orientation that benefits all our young people. We need new methodologies such as entrepreneurship capable of combating school dropout and dispersion and of encouraging youth participation in the innovation processes of businesses in the territories, to increase their value”. Miriam Cresta, CEO of JA Italia, stated. “Gen-E is a moment not only of competition between teams, but also of comparison, exchange of ideas, creation of opportunities and celebration also for young Italians and Sicilians brought into contact with an international experience”.
“Gen-E 2024 is a unique opportunity for our European network of entrepreneurship education experts to showcase and celebrate the best youth businesses from over 40 countries. It also serves as a powerful call to action for the Italian G7 Presidency to take the lead on the youth agenda across all sectors. We are here in Catania to showcase what young people can achieve when given the opportunity to learn and shine. From here, we expect institutions, educators and businesses to come together and scale up entrepreneurial learning opportunities in their local ecosystems everywhere. Action is needed now and JA is here to accompany you on this journey,” added Salvatore Nigro, CEO JA Europe.
Representing Italy will be the Apulian mini-company Hitlocator JA, from the 5^B class of the Jannuzzi Technical Institute of Andria, which has designed a safety helmet for workers on construction sites equipped with localization and impact detection functions , capable of managing any dangerous situations in real time. The team, which won the Best JA Mini-Business Award at the Entrepreneurship Championships held in Parma last May, organized by Junior Achievement Italia in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Merit, was chosen for its attention to a theme of social utility, for the originality of the proposed solution and for the concreteness demonstrated in the realization of the project.
Junior Achievement is the world’s largest non-profit organization dedicated to the economic and entrepreneurial education of young people. The association, nominated for three consecutive years for the Nobel Peace Prize 2022, 2023 and 2024 and selected since 2019 among the Top 500 NGOs in the world, ranking 5th, works through a partnership with companies, institutions and individuals to offer hours of training in schools and inspire girls and boys, encouraging them to follow their dreams and find their way, providing them with the skills necessary to face the future and at the same time contributing to reducing the skill gap between the skills required by the world of work and the skills possessed at the end of school and to promote the financial literacy of boys and girls so that they become informed and responsible citizens. In 122 countries, the JA network brings together over 465,000 corporate volunteers from all professional sectors and, with them, reaches more than 10 million students worldwide. JA Italia has been present in our country since 2002 and has built a network of business professionals, foundations and institutions, educators and teachers who, according to the logic of social responsibility and volunteering, provide practical and concrete teaching tools and methods. Thanks to them, JA Italia trained over 340 thousand young people aged 6 to 24 in the 2022/2023 school year, enhancing their aptitudes and teaching them how to recognize opportunities.
JA Europe is the organization in Europe dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people for success. In the last school year, the JA Europe network in over 40 countries provided 6 million (15 worldwide) learning experiences for young people in online, face-to-face and blended formats with the support of nearly 110,000 teachers and nearly 90,000 company volunteers.
Due to its role in the Education sector, its experience in training processes and its international level activity, JA Europe promotes a seven-point document which it proposes to include in the School System, with the aim of contributing to developing in the new generations a greater awareness of one’s growth potential and of the entrepreneurial spirit that allows one to make the most of talent and skills. The association’s commitment will also be reiterated on the occasion of the YounG7 for Education organized by the Ministry of Education and Merit scheduled in Lignano in conjunction with the G7 ministerial meeting linked to education issues.
The seven points are: investing in entrepreneurship education, accelerating the adoption of advanced technologies and AI, promoting innovation for the green economy, facilitating the creation of startups from a young age, transforming industrial and agrifood sectors, investing in teachers, encourage entrepreneurship in the cultural and creative sectors.
According to the 2023 OECD Missed Entrepreneurs report, there would be 34.1 million more entrepreneurs in the OECD and 7.5 million more in the EU if opportunities were available to all. These individuals represent untapped entrepreneurial potential and 75% of these missing entrepreneurs are women. The report highlights the effectiveness of youth entrepreneurship schemes and that encouraging young people to engage in entrepreneurial activities is key to driving economic growth and innovation.
