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Guidance supporting Europe’s aspiring entrepreneurs
Policy and practice to harness future potential

allow students to begin to think actively about, and decide on, their future
education or employment pathway. The guidance value of mini-companies is
explored further in Example 12.

Example 12. Guidance value of mini-companies

Mini-company programmes have the potential to bring benefits to participants that go beyond
transversal and business competences. They can improve the career management skills of young
people in the following ways.
Raise awareness of entrepreneurship as a career option: mini-companies reach young people
who may not have thought about entrepreneurship as a career path. For some young people this is
the first opportunity they have to experience the world of business and to play a role in setting-up a
real company.
Gain understanding of business life: the programmes provide a safe and risk-free way of
experiencing the full business life-cycle, from start-up to liquidation. This means that if a young
person decides to become an entrepreneur and set up their own business they already have a
generic understanding of what to do, what obstacles to avoid and how, what they can expect, etc.
Mini-company programme can give a ‘trial/practice run’.
Create networks of contacts: mini-companies can give unique access to external business
mentors/advisers, networking opportunities and advice who can provide practical first-hand
knowledge, know-how and experience of entrepreneurship. JA-YE evaluations have shown that the
some of the people involved in mini-company programmes keep in touch with their business
counsellors even after the programme has finished.
Increase self-awareness: mini-companies have the potential of increasing young people’s self-
awareness, especially in relation to the skills required to survive and succeed in a
challenging/changing work environment.
Build confidence: the programmes have the potential of helping young people to take
responsibility for their own career and personal development as they gain experience of doing things
by themselves, with guidance from teachers and professionals, rather than being ‘told’ to do certain
tasks and assignments.

Source: European Commission, 2005b.

Several evaluations have been carried out on the impact of mini-company
programmes on participants’ careers; many (both European and US studies)
have concluded that mini-company alumni are twice as likely to pursue their own
business venture as non-alumni. In the UK a survey found that 14% of
programme alumni were running their own business in comparison to 7% of non-
alumni (Young Enterprise United Kingdom). In 2009, Junior Achievement
Worldwide (JA Worldwide) launched a retrospective study covering 281
individuals who formerly participated in their programmes. The results indicated
that 18% of respondents owned their own business at the time of completing the
survey, in contrast to the US national average of 9.6% (Ja Worldwide, 2009).
Ja-Ye evaluation of 1 238 mini-company participants from Belgium,
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Romania and Slovakia concluded that 15%
of former participants between the ages of 20 and 29 had started their own
businesses and 85% are still running their company (Ja-Ye Europe, 2007). A

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