A junior enterprise is a civil social nonprofit organization established and executed entirely by students of a university or a business school, both at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. The organization's purpose is to provide services for companies, institutions and society, often in the form of consultancies, while enriching the learning of its members with practical experience in the field of their studies. Usually, a junior enterprise is linked to a particular university or business school; by internal regulation, in most cases, a student must be studying at the specific university to join the organization. The most common expertise areas for junior enterprises are business and management, engineering, marketing, communication, IT services and law. The members of the organization have the chance to take part in real-world projects, while experiencing the functioning of a real company: junior enterprises, indeed, either are real companies, or resemble one in their operational activities, often having a management council and an executive board, together with an own regulation.

The concept

History

JE Europe

The Junior Enterprise Europe was created in 1992 under the name 'JADE - European Confederation of Junior Enterprises' in order to link all the national confederations of Junior Enterprises in Europe. The founding members were the Netherlands (FNJE), Portugal (JEP), Italy, Switzerland (USJE) and France.

JE Europe's work and recognitions

The recognition and acceptance of the Junior Enterprise movement by politicians, public institutions and companies, confirms and proofs the concept of junior entrepreneurship:

Impact on employment and entrepreneurship

Facts and Figures

Diverse studies carried out by JE Europe, the European Commission and other parties, prove that participation in a Junior Enterprisedramatically improves a student's career perspectives, employment and intentions towards entrepreneurship.

Brasil Júnior - Brazilian Confederation of Junior Enterprises

Brasil Junior is the world's biggest junior enterprise confederation, composed by more than 1335 confederated junior enterprises and more than 22,000 junior entrepreneurs. It has as purpose to represent the junior enterprises nationwide and develop the Junior Enterprise Movement as an agent of business education and generation of new business. It is currently formed by 19 state federations.

Rest of the world

Recently, junior enterprises appeared also in China, especially on the campus of Peking University. The movement is also taking its first step in North America with the recent launch a cross-faculty Junior Enterprise at McGill University in Canada. Shortly after the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign launched the first JE in the US.