October 28, 2015
Hungary. Budapest. Over 2,000 secondary school students from across Hungary will acquire entrepreneurship knowledge and skills through the new Citi-Junior Achievement Young Entrepreneurship Program launched in October 2015. The Citi Foundation’s grant extended to USD 85,000 and more than 30 Citi Hungary employees actively engaged as volunteers to support the program. During the next eight months the teams of students will engage in establishing and developing their own small company to learn by experience the art of building a sustainable enterprise. This will enhance their employability skills and will help them build a solid foundation in support of their future careers.
“We are very excited to launch this new program in partnership with Citi Hungary and the Citi Foundation. Our mission is to develop the entrepreneurial spirit in the young generation, and our objective is to facilitate young people to think creatively and take action to realize their business ideas. This program will inspire and prepare secondary school students to use the entrepreneurial approach in solving problems and securing their own future, while working on creating a socially and environmentally more sustainable world”, said Orsolya M. Gergely, CEO of JA Hungary.
“Catalyzing job opportunities for youth is one of the key areas the Citi Foundation focuses on while fulfilling our mission to promote economic progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities around the world. We at Citi can leverage our unmatched global expertise and our diverse people’s vast insight to help create more economic opportunities for the youth in Hungary,” said Eva Hencz, Public Affairs Officer for Citi Hungary.
The program is unique in its approach, methods and tools in Hungary: it is a “learning by doing” module that provides high school students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in launching and running their own enterprises. This requires students to actually implement their business ideas, create and sell their own products and services. The winner student company will represent Hungary at the JA Europe Company of the Year Competition in Switzerland next year.
The participating students will compete with their sales results generated at national and local fairs organized within the program. In addition, they will also take part in Entrepreneurship Roadshows to learn key aspects of entrepreneurship, including business planning and finances, sales and marketing. The workshops are designed to also promote entrepreneurial spirit and this is achieved by inviting local entrepreneurs for sharing best practices and lead open discussions with the students. 100 teachers will take part in the special teacher training program led by experts of Junior Achievement in preparation for providing support to the student companies in their schools.
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