JA-YE-EUROPE

75 students from 8 countries (Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, UK) and 15 business volunteers from Hyundai Motor Europe (HME) gathered in the HME’s headquarters in Offenbach to celebrate a year’s work in entrepreneurship education in vocational schools. Over the course of the school year, 3,000 students created and managed their own real enterprise. They were supported by trained teachers and mentors from Hyundai. These mini-companies develop products and services related to the automotive industry and the best of them competed in front of a Jury for the Hyundai Skills for the Future Award.

Skills for the Future is a programme created by JA-YE Europe in partnership with HME to promote greater understanding and awareness among young people in vocational schools about the skills required to succeed professionally. Combining the industry expertise of Hyundai with the JA-YE experience in entrepreneurship education, the initiative aims to inspire new generations to be more entrepreneurial and encourages them to see the relevance of their education to future career prospects in the automotive industry.

“Having already worked with more than 3,000 young people in 125 schools across 8 countries in Europe we cannot move quickly enough with Hyundai Motor Europe to provide more students with the skills and confidence they need to succeed in the 21st century job market. It is only possible with partnerships like this to inspire the next generation of innovators in Europe,” said Caroline Jenner CEO of JA-YE Europe.

All schools involved in the activities participated in national competitions and the best teams were selected to participate in the European Final. The best idea for an automotive service/product received the Hyundai Award from a jury chaired by Allan Rushforth, Senior Vice President and COO HME.

After much deliberation the judges chose team Cross which developed a smartphone application to increase awareness about safe driving; a genuinely breakthrough product with great marketing and huge customer benefit. (Cross video presentation)

Marek Kaminicky from the team Cross from Slovakia said, “We are really proud to have won the first place since we felt we had a good presentation, we were confident and above all we had an innovative product. I would also like to thank Hyundai for standing behind us and pushing us to bring our product to the next level!”

“The Cross team have shown great passion to develop this product and we are delighted to provide mentoring support to help realise their dream.

“We are committed to helping drive economic growth in Europe, and by investing in the business leaders of tomorrow we are contributing to a more prosperous future. Our education and mentoring initiatives will help tackle the skills gap in Europe’s job market, inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs and providing them with a valuable platform for business success,” said Allan Rushforth, Senior Vice President and COO of Hyundai Motor Europe.

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More photos can be accessed via Picasa here .

About Junior Achievement – Young Enterprise Europe (JA-YE Europe)

JA-YE Europe is Europe’s largest provider of entrepreneurship education programmes, reaching 3.2 million students in 39 countries in 2013. Funded by businesses, institutions, foundations and individuals, JA-YE brings the public and private sectors together to provide young people in primary and secondary schools and early university with experiences that promote the skills, understanding and perspective that they will need to succeed in a global economy. The JA-YE Company Programme is recognised by the European Commission Enterprise Directorate General as a ‘Best Practice in Entrepreneurship Education’. JA-YE Europe is the European Regional Operating Center for JA Worldwide®

For more information, visit www.ja-ye.org

Contact:

JA-YE Europe
Elina Konstantinou, Phone: + 32 2 735 97 20
Junior Achievement-Young Enterprise Europe
elina@ja-ye.org