Final report - European Commission - Europa

HOW THE JA-YE MINI- COMPANY CHANGED MY LIFEBrynhild Vinskei, student and Project Manager at Young Enterprise NorwaySometimes in life, you might experience something that changes your life, life takes a new direction. Five years agothat happened to me. I was a graduate student at Askim Upper secondary school. One of my subjects this year wasmarketing, and a part of this subject was to establish and run our own mini- companies.The JA-YE mini company provided us with hands-on experience in the life of enterprise, economics and business. We,my mini company that consisted of 3 girls and 3 boys, had to work together as a team with all the challenges andobstacles it impliesWe had to manage finances (real money!). We had to sell and market our mini company product, we got the chanceto be creative, we had to be leaders, we had to solve and deal with a lot of problems that came up… and sometimeswe even really got to learn hard way. By working like this, in a mini- company, we brought all the things we learnedin various subjects in practice and we felt as if we got the real world into our classroom. An experience that showedus how companies work and are established in real life. The JA-YE mini- company experience gave me much morethan the skills and knowledge to be an entrepreneur. It gave me self-confidence, self development, responsibility,open-minded, independence, motivation for studying in all the other subjects I had to learn more and I got to developa better relationship with my classmates and our fantastic engaged teacher. I know that this is also the case forso many others. To become equipped at such a young age with the fundamentals of business, enterprise and economicshas taught me a lot of business and people skills and made me see that my potential in life reaches even furtherthan I thought.How it has affected my life? It gave me direction, made it easier for me to make a choice of career, made me see whereI wanted to go, what opportunities I have and what I wanted to do. Before this experience, my plan in life was tobecome a nurse, which is a great profession. But with this mini-company experience I discovered that I – little me –can start my own company and am not afraid to do so, cause I have been there and know what it takes and I havebeen taught the skills to get there. Today, I’m not a nurse. Now, after my experience from the JA-YE mini company, Igot hungry for more knowledge, for more education, so today I’m a student here at BI Norwegian School ofManagement, studying PR, communication and leadership.I owe my experience and what I have learned to my eager teacher who believed in us and allowed us to be independentand learn things the real way; to our mentor from the business life who shared his own experiences with us,gave us advices and helped us see the real world by bringing it to us; to JA-YE who provided us with the programmeand framework of the mini- company; to the Norwegian government who supported both JA-YE and the schoolowners. I owe them this unforgettable and valuable experience with the mini-company. But in the meantime, I believethat the main challenges is to get more engaged teachers, like mine, more involvement and support from the localand national business life and the government. Bring the real world even closer to the students by creating more partnershipbetween schools and businesses.I have learned that anyone can learn how to be an entrepreneur, and thanks to JA-YE, my school and awesome teacher,I know I have learned to be, and I will be… an entrepreneur.17Entrepreneurship Education in Europe: Fostering Entrepreneurial Mindsets through Education and Learning