Gjirokastër, 2 February 2023 As part of the campaign "Strengthening the supporting environment for student companies" undertaken within the framework of the implementation of the "By Leap" project, JAA held a round table in Gjirokastër with the participation of representatives of local public institutions, non-governmental organizations, students and teachers of the "Student Companies" in Gjirokastër district. The table served as an information space not only on the program of the "Student Company" and the need of the established Companies for more support, but also on the initiatives, programs and projects that are applied by public institutions and organizations that can provide real support for students not only during the application of this module at school, but also outside it.
Innovation camp 'Inspire - Prepare - Succeed' with young people passionate about entrepreneurship
The modules of Junior Achievement of Albania will start to be implemented also in vocational secondary education in Albania
Forming the growth and transformation of youth Startups
Within the By Leap project: "Linking education, regional skills and potentials with regional youth employment practices" in a 4-month period, JAA supported the transformation of student and youth business initiatives into SMEs, through assistance and consultancy and transformational mentoring. From 30 applications 10 startups and ideas entered the pre-incubation stage based on 4 pillars: Defining the business goal, developing hypotheses, successful experiments, using data and information for decision making. The 4 pillars were used to empower and helped the 10 selected ideas, in validating their ideas/driving startups.Through this data, developing ideas/startups made adjustments to existing ideas or turned to another direction discovered through experiments.At the end of pre-incubation phase, the 4 most performing founders/teams were: Switch Technologies, LikSad eBikes, Crazy Creative House, Dora Creative. The transformation process of the 4 selected startup companies (with JA Alumni founders) was created as a series step-by-step workshops and mentoring on the legal framework for starting a business; defining the problem and other possible solutions in the market; improving the proposed value; financial model; marketing and visibility strategies, securing funds and investment readiness. At the end of the transformation process, the 4 startups developed: Pitch Deck, the tool to present the potential of their startup to different investors; the work plan for registering their business according to the best fiscal form and the business plan. The founders of the 4 startups are equipped with the necessary tools and knowledge to start their business activity and strive for sustainability and growth .
Student Societies
Career day at school
Fun career exploration activities are a great strategy to get students interested in learning about different careers. JAA continued to carry out "Career Day" activities in the period September-December 2022 in partnership with five 9-year-old schools in Tirana, Durrës and Elbasan. 210 students were involved in interrelated activities developed by JAA in the school premises and which basically aimed to help them identify their interests, talents and abilities.
We contribute to increasing the quality of teaching
686 teachers of Citizenship subjects of the third, sixth and eighth grades of 9-year education from 15 Local Education Offices in Albania were included in the 36 trainings carried out by JAA in the period September - December 2022. The participants increased their knowledge and developed skills practice in giving JAA modules during the teaching process in the classes where they teach. Such trainings accredited by the Ministry of Education and Sports will continue to be developed by JAA in order to increase the quality of teaching and financial education and entrepreneurship for children and young people in Albania.
The second secret of debate clubs in universities
81 students from 5 public and private Faculties and Universities in Albania were included during the month of December in the second training organized by Junior Achievement of Albania within the Debating Economics program. The students involved in the training are part of the Debate Clubs set up by JAA in partnership with the respective Universities.
The second training, part of a training cycle for Debate Club students, aims to develop and apply one of the main skills of the millennial, such as critical thinking. Students were introduced to key elements of critical thinking and developed practical skills to be better debaters.
JAA - Accredited Training
86 teachers of higher secondary education in Albania were included in the trainings developed by JAA in the period November-December 2022. ” and “Director for a Day” to expand knowledge and develop skills that enable the effective development of the lesson and transfer of knowledge and skills to students. The "Team Building in Adolescence" module, accredited and applied for the first time, was found with interest by the participating teachers from both upper secondary and lower secondary schools.
Regional Entrepreneurial Learning Partnership Building Forum
On October 26-28, 2022, the Regional Entrepreneurship Learning Partnership Building Forum was organized within the BY LEAP project (Balkan Youth: Linking Education, Skills and Partnership Potential in Regional Employment Practice) funded by the European Union and implemented by JA Serbia. coordinator), National Youth Council of Macedonia, JA of Albania, WEBIN, JA Turkiye, Munja, SBC and JA Europe. The Regional Forum for Building Entrepreneurial Learning Partnership brought together 120 participants from CSOs in the region, government and professional bodies , young entrepreneurs and successful student companies in order to promote partnership building with a regional perspective. Also, the summary of regional policies regarding the regulation of student and youth companies in different regional contexts was presented and debated. National level exit strategies were presented to discuss the partnership's involvement in the process of assessing the limitation of strategic frameworks and recommendations for contributions to new frameworks being developed.