Press release
Students create international joint ventures and gain entrepreneurship
experience abroad
Students from Northern European countries within the project “Central Baltic Student
Enterprises without Borders” on the first year have established 28 international joint ventures.
The aim of the project is to encourage creating international student companies involving
students from four countries – Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Sweden - and establishing 50
joint ventures during the three years’ the project will take place. Students participate with
their companies in international trade fairs taking place in the project’s countries and present
their business to the jury. Teacher – consultant – training takes place each year in order to
successfully coordinate the work of the students.
During the first year more than 200 students, 70 teachers and 35 mentors from participating
countries were involved in the project.
Epp Vodja, CEO of Junior Achievement Estonia: “This project is aimed to give young people
an insight to international business and working in multinational teams. No business can be
successful without crossing borders nowadays and the sooner the new generation
understands it, the better their prospects for the future are.”
In the first year of the project the joint ventures created many great ideas such as berry
lemonade, candles, wooden cups with a special design, phone accessories, board games
and products for tourists. The companies also collaborated with each other in sales and
marketing, for example selling each other’s products in their own countries.
One of the best and positive examples of collaboration is the joint venture Jenny’s Café.
Students from Latvia, Estonia and Sweden participated in this team and together found a
common aim and were able to successfully work together. As teammates from Jenny’s Café
acknowledge: “We have learnt how to work in a team and organize the business with those
involved in it living in different countries. We have gained new friends and traveled to a part
of Scandinavian and Baltic countries.”
One of the most active schools from Latvia which is involved in the project is Jelgava Spīdola
Gymnasium. Its math’s teacher Margita Jirgensone evaluates the project as a good
challenge for the students to gain international experience and establish joint companies:
“Sometimes it’s difficult to collaborate even with classmates but this international
collaboration requires a high level of responsibility, patience, ability to take initiative and find
a compromise as well as understanding cultural differences. To achieve the goals of the
project, the school involved new teachers in entrepreneurial education, and it’s team became
even stronger!”
Both, the students and the teachers, mention the possibility to gain experience by
communicating and cooperating with representatives from other countries and traveling as
the main pros of the project. However the biggest challenge has been the effort to find a
common aim and achieve good results, as well as learning to sell their products
internationally. The youth acknowledges that the meetings of the team should happen more
often in order to strengthen the ongoing co-operation because some of the joint ventures
didn’t last till the end of the schoolyear. For the next year organizers will make changes in the
time schedule and content to give the students the possibility to work more on the
collaboration and team-building, and creating innovative products. The teachers will also
have an important part in sustaining the co-operation between students by strengthening
their own collaboration and communication across the schools and countries.
The lead project partner is Junior Achievement Eesti (Estonia). The project partners also
include Junior Achievement Latvija (Latvia), Nuori Yrittäjyys (JA Finland) and Ung
Företagsamhet Sverige (JA Sweden). Project is taking place from September 2015 till April
2019. Project is financed by Interreg Central Baltic program from the European Regional
Development Fund.
Contact information:
Linda Östensson, project manager JA Sweden
Email: [email protected]