Cultivating an Entrepreneurial Mindset: JA’s Entrepreneurship Learning Experiences Around the World

October 14, 2024

This is the third in a three-part series about JA’s three pillars: work readiness, financial health, and entrepreneurship.

When they were university students, Nadia Ladak and her best friends Simone Godbout, Harit Sohal, and Kiara Botha knew they wanted to channel their collective passion for social impact into an innovative company. Their company, Marlow, was born from an entrepreneurship capstone project at the Ivey Business School at Western University. “Our professors told us to find a problem that we were passionate about solving,” Nadia, a JA Canada alumna, reflected. “After reading an article about how the modern tampon hadn’t changed significantly in the last 90 years, we were drawn to the menstrual health space.” The products lacked innovation, the marketing was outdated, and the community, conversation, and education seemed to be missing. Ultimately, it was a personal story that led to the creation of their lubricated tampon product.

“My co-founder shared that she had a lot of pain when inserting tampons,” Nadia explained. “She’s an active individual and a swimmer and felt that pads, her only alternative, limited her in her daily active lifestyle while on her period.” The friends and co-founders were shocked that even a visit to the gynecologist didn’t yield any helpful suggestions or solutions. “We knew there must be a better way to solve this problem, which led us to create the first-ever lubricated tampon.”

Nadia’s entrepreneurship journey began in high school with the JA Company Program. “JA gave me an early taste of what it was like to pursue entrepreneurship. I got to learn about all the aspects of starting a business in a low-risk environment, supported by mentors.” Her connection to the JA alumni community alerted her to the opportunity to apply for David Meltzer’s pitch show 2 Minute Drill. A JA alumnus himself, David has dedicated one episode per season to JA alumni-owned business for the last three seasons. In 2022, Nadia pitched Marlow. Competing against four other JA alumni, including a finalist for the 2022 De La Vega Global Entrepreneurship Award, Nadia impressed the all-male panel of judges with her company’s story, winning US$50,000 for the company.

“Junior Achievement was instrumental in shaping my entrepreneurial mindset,” Nadia reflected. “The hands-on experience of running a small business in high school gave me the confidence and skills to pursue my own ventures later in life.”

Through JA’s real-world entrepreneurship programs—the longest-running in the world—students work as a team to develop an innovative product or service, finance their startup business, creatively market their product, and launch their careers as entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs.

The JA Company Program: A Global Learning Experience

JA Company Program challenges young people to fill a need or solve a problem in their community and teaches them practical skills required to conceptualize, capitalize, and manage their own business venture. Throughout the process of building their own companies, participants collaborate, make crucial business decisions, communicate with multiple stakeholders, and develop entrepreneurial knowledge and skills.

The JA Company Program empowers students ages 15–19 to address community needs or problems by teaching them essential skills for conceptualizing, capitalizing, and managing their own business ventures. With guidance from community volunteers and mentors, students collaborate with team members, make crucial business decisions, and develop their entrepreneurial knowledge. The new edition, launched in 2024, includes masterclasses on industry trends like AI and the circular economy, aligned with the UN Global Goals (SDGs), alongside prerequisite courses on project management and financial literacy. Enhanced learning materials, including comprehensive guides, video content, and interactive missions, culminate in a detailed report. The program adapts content to local cultural and business contexts and is delivered via a robust learning-management systemfor improved user experience and engagement.

Like all JA learning experiences, JA regions and member locations tailor entrepreneurship curricula to meet the needs of their students and communities. The following is just a sample of each region’s offerings.

JA Africa

ITS TYME is a hands-on, impactful immersion training program that provides life skills, business education, mentoring, and access to finance and industry-specific apprenticeship opportunities to marginalized African youth! 

The ITS TYME experience enhances the ability of young, semi-literate youth in Africa to acquire business skills and use innovative thinking to expand and enhance their career options and livelihoods. Since 2012, JA Africa has delivered the ITS TYME program in Gabon, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia.

In collaboration with a wide range of partner organizations, the program has trained more than 6,000 out-of-school youth, mobilized hundreds of volunteer facilitators and business executives to mentor African youth, and facilitate their access to the real world of business. Over 700 businesses have been established under this program.

Building on the successful school-based JA Company Program, ITS TYME takes entrepreneurship training out of the classroom and into the African marketplace, motor parks, slums, sports arenas and other centers of youth activity with a mission to equip young people with the practical, strategic, and tactical tools they need to become financially self-sufficient and active contributors to the social, economic, and political life of their communities. Learn more.

JA Americas

NAUFest 3.0

NAUFest is a live/virtual hybrid event held at arenas throughout the Americas that focuses on inspiration, trends, and the future of work. It offers thousands of young people in the region a unique opportunity with 14 in-person events across 10 countries and a virtual proposal for the entire region. The 2024 edition, going on now, emphasizes the future of work, entrepreneurial skills, and key trends like AI, sustainability, and personal purpose. It combines in-person events, inspiring content, keynote speakers, job fairs, and regional activities such as the Ideal Job Interview Challenge and Talent Matching. Learn more.

JA Innovation Camp

JA Innovation Camp is offered as a half day or a one-day intensive experience that engages students with entrepreneurial and collaborative learning opportunities. Students ages 15–18 find innovative solutions to a specific challenge in the world of business or their community. Working as a team, students using innovative tools such as design thinking to answer the challenge.

ConexiON

The ConexiON microlearning experience, delivered via WhatsApp, was created for young people ages 15–29 and is available 24/7. ConexiON includes 15-minute educational courses on entrepreneurship. At the end of each course, young people have the possibility of enrolling in more in-depth programs, depending on the educational proposals of each country. Try out the chatbot.

JA Asia Pacific

FedEx Express/JA Asia Pacific International Trade Challenge

The International Trade Challenge (ITC) nurtures the entrepreneurial spirit and business skills for JA students around the JA Asia Pacific region. During the event, student, working in pairs of two, create a market entry strategy for a product and target market. Each year, more than 2,700 aspiring young entrepreneurs participate in local ITC workshops across 10 markets over a period of eight months. The finalists from those competition attend the regional competition. Since its debut in 2007, the ITC has grown into a prestigious regional competition, attracting participants from various countries.

In 2024, 60 finalists from Hong Kong SAR–China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam participated in the competition. Over three days, students attended activities designed to inspire and educate, including expert-led workshops that provided valuable insights into market strategies, sustainability, and entrepreneurship. They also participated in networking sessions, where they mingled with peers, mentors, and professionals. The competition format encourages cross-cultural collaboration and the exchange of diverse ideas. All 60 students were sorted into teams of two, partnering with participants from other countries who may not speak the same language. Learn more.

My Business My Future (for Care Leavers by Micron)

The My Business My Future program by JA Asia Pacific, supported by Micron, is designed to help care leavers develop entrepreneurial skills and financial literacy. The program aims to empower these young individuals by providing them with the knowledge and tools needed to start and manage their own businesses. Through hands-on activities, mentorship, and real-world experiences, participants learn how to create business plans, manage finances, and make informed business decisions. This program helps care leavers build a brighter future by fostering their entrepreneurial spirit and self-sufficiency.

JA Europe

Entrepreneurial Skills Pass

The Entrepreneurial Skills Pass (ESP) is an international certification of skills and experiences for businesses eager to hire students with an entrepreneurial mindset. Initiated with the support of the European Commission by JA Europe, the ESP is now a global initiative endorsed by the Organization of the American States and selected by the World Economic Forum as one of 16 Education 4.0 Lighthouses—examples of public-private collaborations that are reimagining the youth learning experience and can serve as inspiration for educators, parents, policymakers, and employers.

This is the first JA global microcredential—now used in more than 50 countries—certifying that students have had a real entrepreneurship experience through the JA Company Program. A competence-based assessment allows students to reflect on their own progress, and a final test of skills validates and certifies their knowledge about running a business. Learn more.

AI ENTR4YOUTH

The rapidly growing artificial intelligence (AI) field is revolutionizing industries and changing the way we live and work. AI has the potential to bring about significant economic and social benefits, but it also poses challenges and risks that need to be addressed. JA Europe is taking the next step to reshape education by creating a merged curricula and integrating AI into its entrepreneurship education program to help young people become more aware of AI’s potential and limitations. Learn more.

INJAZ Al-Arab / JA MENA

INJAZ Al-Arab/JA MENA locations offer the JA Company Program as a 12-session company simulation that provides high school and university students with comprehensive, hands-on entrepreneurial training. Delivered by volunteers and mentors, students learn essential aspects of entrepreneurship, including ideation, business planning, marketing, financial management, and pitching. As part of the JA Company Program’s emphasis on practical learning and industry engagement, university finalists in MENA receive exclusive mentorship sessions with professionals from McKinsey & Company. These sessions provide invaluable guidance and insights from industry experts, helping the students refine their business models and prepare for the competitive landscape. Through this initiative, students gain a real-world understanding of entrepreneurship, positioning them for future success in their entrepreneurial journeys.

Junior Achievement USA

High school: JA Be Entrepreneurial is a reimagined, modular learning experience that teaches students about the mindset and the skills needed for success by aspiring entrepreneurs and innovators who add value to any organization. Through JA Think Like an Entrepreneur, students develop a mindset that enables opportunity identification, innovation, value creation, and problem solving. Learn more about the different modules: Creative Problem Solving, Rapid Business Planning, and Think Like an Entrepreneur.

High school: JA Entrepreneurial Mindset is a one-semester, teacher-led course that introduces high school students to the basics of starting a business, including developing entrepreneurial abilities, identifying business opportunities, creating a business plan, understanding economics, and identifying the stages of business growth. Volunteers engage with students through a variety of activities that may include subject-matter guest speaking, coaching, or advising for case study and project coursework. Learn more.

Elementary school: JA Our Region introduces students to entrepreneurship and how entrepreneurs use resources to produce goods and services in a region. Students operate a hypothetical hot dog stand to understand the fundamental tasks performed by a business owner and to track the revenue and expenses of a business. JA Our Region offers flexible implementation options to meet the needs of students and teachers in a variety of use cases. It includes five 45-minute sessions, with additional extended learning activities and optional digital assets offered throughout. Learn more.