JA Enterprise in Action

GENERAL INTRODUCTION 

OF THE PROJECT  JA - ENTERPRISE IN ACTION

ALTERNANCE TRAINING

Enterprise in Action ( Italian: Impresa in azione) is the most widespread program of entrepreneural education in the secondary school that in 14 years has involved  60.000 Italian students 18.000 in the school year 2016/2017 and over 310.000 each year in all Europe. 

All the participating classes create  mini-companies for training purposes  and take care of its management, from the concept of an idea and its launch in the market. This process, that is rich of well-established contents and instruments, offers a real professional experience, because students have a close contact with businesses and the world outside. Because of its pragmatism and its closeness to reality, this experience simplifies the development of a series of  technical and transversal competences, very important for all students, regardless of their future professional interests. Its learning method, that relies on learning-by-doing experiantial explications, is able to fascinate and actively involve all its participants. 

In the school year 2016/2017, 800 classesall over Italy have taken part to this project and - thanks to this experience- have been developed approximately  750 new business concepts. Some of them have already been patented or recorded as real businesses.  

Its addressees

Enterprise in Action is addressed to all students between 16 and 19  of the last 3 years of secondary schools all over Italy. Because of its peculiarity, this project can have different lenghth and several contents and can also adopted in all Secondary School curriclula, such as Lyceums, Technical and Professional Institutes.

Schools can participate with one or more classes and can create one or several business teams ( each team consists in 7 students at least with a maximum of 30). Each class is coordinated by an internal teacher of the Institute. 

The Project "Enterprise in Action" belongs to the program of Alternance Training

From the year 2015/2016, Enterprise in Action  is officially included among the experiences of  Alternance Training  recognized by MIUR.

The program consists in about  80-120 hours on average, 50 % of its lenght at least, practical activities in direct contact with professional experts, businesses, institutions and other economic realities at a local, national and international level. 

To be included in the Alternance Training Program, the School enters an agreement (approved by MIUR) with JA Italia association and receives  the registers for the students and the related evaluation forms.

The mini-business' learning method of the students 

The teaching format of the mini-business  requires that each entrepreneual team gets organized as a true business reality , by acquiring an entrepreneural business and precise operational roles, certificates, procedures and rules, with the aim of developing in concrete terms  a business concept  (a product, a service, a digital app…) and launch it to the market, by enabling a commercial micro-business. 

The students collect money to open the mini-business, go through the prototype, production and selling phases. Behind everything, there is a process of technical and economical viability, a correct analysis of the reference scenario and of thei potential customers, the search of suppliers for the acquisition of raw materials, the definition of a price strategy and the channels of distributiono. In this way, the team creates a brand and controls all the communication activities, such as the printing of the brochure, the realization of a we-site, the management of the social profiles. 

The students decide in full autonomy the field of intervention of their own mini-business by joint agreement with the contact teacher. 

Business skills and qualifications

Enterprise in action doesn't promote the entrepreneurial choice but - through a detailed training processo, where its idea ( product or service, with a certain degree of creativity and originality) is the starting point that enables the next activities- allows to strenghten and to  make experience of  its own "business" skill, i.e a mixture of transversal activities, such as several forms of teamworking, acceptance of responsibility, spirit of enterprise,  endurance, creativity, initiative, negotiation, courage and self confidence. 

The ESP certification (Entrepreneurial Skills Pass), recognized across Europe, certifies the possession of theoretical and practical competences in the field of economics, finance and enterprise acquired thanks to the participation in the program  Enterprise in Action  and is released after passing an online exam ( not compulsory activity).  

The contest

Every year from the month of April, the classes can take part to the local, national and international contests and apply for special online awards.  

The contest is an important component of the learning process and- even though they are not compulsory- complete the training, by enabling the students "to actively play " the professional role during the whole length of the program and make experience of the approval of the public concerning their business concept. A very important element of highly educational value results from the comparison with the jury: business professionals, entrepreneurs and professors interact with the students, by appraising their work and by providing important feedbacks and actions of positive reinforcement. 

The assessment criteria are disclosed to the school institutions taking part to the program at the beginning of the experience. The participation to the different contests belongs to the   Alternance Training activities.

Because of the highly educational value of this experience, the MIUR has included the national contest among the competitions that allow to access to the  Albo Nazionale delle Eccellenze.

School S. Freud has enthusiastically agreed to the program. a Scuola 

Here are the projects designed by the students of the triennium ( ICT and Tourism) 

JA1 - JUST TECHNOLOGY MINI-BUSINESS - U-Share

U-Share is the product realized by the business Just Technology. U-Share is a service of sharing that, because of its high density and availability of workstations, will allow people not to take their umbrella when it's raining. By using the U-Share aoo- for mobile devices- you can acan a QR code on one of its bases to start the fruition of the service, or it will be possible to book an umbrella in your proximity.  The workstations will be located in strategic points or in underpasses. To simplify the localisation you will find some U-Share marker poles. The workstations are provided with stationary bases from which you can take an umbrella and start the fruition of the service, by scanning a specific QR code and by using the mobile app of U-Share. 

Cost:

€0,10 for half an hour

€1 per day

€4,99 season pass

€14,99 annual pass

Cancellation fee for theft €25 the first three times; for the fourth time €35.

JA2 - RUNE TECHNOLOGY MINI-BUSINESS- Jera

The Rune Technology business team wants to develop   “Jera”, a software that is able to manage the cinema check in/out by using codified cards. Their aim consists in reducing the excessive use of paper by creating green-friendly cinemas. Cards will be codified and delivered at the ticket office by replacing the common paper ticket.  With this card you can have access. Once you are in, the card must be passed on a screen- scanner. This one will display the client's place. At the end of the film projection cards will be taken back to be codified and used again on another occasion. The price is to be considered. 

JA3 - KOBRASSOUND MINI-BUSINESS - Kobra one

The  Kobrassaund business-team wants to develop  “Kobra one” a mobile speaker with annex of a LCD touch screen monitor flown by a raspberry controller with the installation of  Windows, Spotify and the multimedia virtual platform, where you can download its music tracks and listen to them. The monitor will be assembled on a  raspberry motherboard. Thanks to this you can control all the speaker's configurations, from the sound until the choice of more  updated versions, by unlocking its kernel. This will enable the client to use it as a a real laptop. Approximate cost  €200.

JA4- DIGITAL LIFE MINI BUSINESS -Tour Creator

This JA project consists in developing an app to simplify to all tourists the organization of their "trip" in their favourite city. With this app it is possible to set up a guided tour to reduce the time to reach their destination. It enables to create a personalized tour to visit any city in the world. For example, if you want to see the Cathedral in Milan you have only to enter your position. The app will calculate for you, in just few seconds, all the itineraries you can undertake quickly as possible. You can do it more than a time, in such a way that you can enter more monuments and this app will work for you as described above.  

Well, it's a very useful app, isn't it? A lot of people are dreaming to visit a new "city" without any problem...You can eat, you can drink, you can talk to your friends but most of all you can visit unique places in the shortest possible time...it's amazing!  

As far as concerns some optional  “Tweak”, it is possible to include another important facility in this project…. what are we talking about?

Well, you can see the information of the monument you like, whenever you want. Here is an example: you are in front of the Cathedral of Milan and you haven't any knowledge of this monument. You have only to click on its picture and the app will open a display, by giving a lot of information about the monument.  And much more! We can also add friends to undertake this "guided tour" together with other people ( therefore, it is useful for schools) so that you can involve more people in your fantastic trip. 

JA5 - ROOKIE TECH MINI-BUSINESS  - Plann.it

It's a summer evening in August. All your friends are on holiday. You want to see a film that has just come out, but you can't go to the cinema. 

You have already organized a football match with your friends, but Marco has felt sick at the last moment and you are in 9. You can't play 4-5, so what can you do? You can't ask any person... 

With plann.it we try to solve this kind of problem! 

This idea has just been designed by young people who want to extend their social circle. This facility is very simple to use: the user creates an account and with this one he/she can provide personal information, visualize,take part to events or create them. The whole app is a  community-driven idea: not only have the users to participate to events that have been already scheduled, but you can create others, as well. The presence of the community represents a key-point in the development and in the success of the app.

We want to create a secure app and therefore we have created a multi-level system. You advance to the next level according to the information entered by the user who can decide to add different kind of information.  The more information you get, the higher will be the user's level. The user with the highest level can access to more features in this app.

After having created an account, a client- with every permit- can view a map showing the closest events, filtered according to your interests. Clicking on an event you can view further information: profiles of the participants, the organizer's reputation and the information about the meeting place. When you find an event, you can send a request for participation. When this is accepted by the organizer, you can access to the participants' chat and - according to the time scheduled by the organizer- you can cancel it without any penalty charges. If you take part to some events, you will gain scores that will be made publicly visible on our profile- and the relation between these scores and events you havent taken part is a factor of reliability of the user.  To create an event, you have to to select a meeting point on the map, to choose the general category, to write the specific interest,give the maximum number of participants, the time and the meeting point. Young people between 14 and 25 is the target demographic. As a matter of fact, this idea can be useful to solve some common problems.

JA6 - TECHNOALARM MINI-BUSINESS - Holo-Alarm

Our work consists in designing a hologram alarm clock of small and medium size, able to transmit any picture or any time on a pyramidal plexiglas structure, that through a play of lights, will be projected at the centre of the structure, just like a hologram. The artifact's name is Holo-Alarm and will be an innovative product created by us with the Arduino program. The project implements the alarm clock with a simple and intuitive menu, enabling the correct setting by an inexpert user, by offering an easy and practical service you can use everyday. Approximate Cost € 30.

The contact persons of the Alternance Training.