Junior Achievement Partnership Prepares Student Entrepreneurs for Business
With a population of over 110,000, the central Serbian town of Smederevo is among the largest municipalities in the nation. Resting on the edge of the Sumadija region and stretching to the banks of the Danube and Morava rivers, the area holds promise for the further development of industry, agriculture, and trading.
Its young citizens are now acquiring important skills to participate in this process, thanks to Junior Achievement. The program provides hands-on activities through which high school students gain basic knowledge of the principles of a market economy and a better understanding of private business, both in theory and in practice.
In collaboration with their teachers, high school students at Smederevo's School of Economics and Trade have established a student enterprise, called “The In Team”, in order to learn how businesses function and try to "survive" on the market. The team has signed a contract with the Komunalac public utility through which it will assist the company with distributing utility bills, with plans to use the money it earns to publish its school newspaper.
The In Team is only one of a number of "enterprises"—others include “Wizard,” “The Third Element,” and “Reflection in the Mirror”—established by nearly 1,000 students in roughly 30 high schools participating in the Junior Achievement program throughout 20 municipalities in central Serbia.
The project, supported by the Serbian Ministry of Education and Sport and implemented by USAID partner ACDI/VOCA via the Community Revitalization through Democratic Action (CRDA) program, builds on the Junior Achievement efforts in more than 30 other high schools in eastern and southern Serbia.
"This is a great opportunity for us to become familiar with economics and learn some basic market principles in the area of advertising," says Marija Svabic, chairperson of the Wizard group, and a sophomore at the Milos Savkovic High School in Arandjelovac.
Not only are students learning, but their teachers as well. In order to encourage students in understanding the secrets of business, teachers are receiving training in subjects such as applied economics and student entrepreneurial organizations. Further instruction in management and economics simulation exercises will form the basis for organizing a national competition for high school students to determine the most successful student activities within the Junior Achievement program.
"First, we will hold a competition at the school level. The best 20 teams from the Sumadija region will compete with their peers from central and southeast Serbia at the national level. The competition will include a computer simulation of the market conditions of business. The teams will be faced with changes in the market and expected to show the knowledge and skills [necessary to deal with them]," says Mirjana Cairovic, a teacher from the medical school in Kragujevac.
The program is also attracting the attention of local government officials.
"It would be an understatement to say that I am overwhelmed with what I saw at the program's presentation," said Vesna Jeremic, head of Podunavlje County, which is participating in the Junior Achievement program in Smederevska Palanka. "I believe this is the right way for us in the community to produce young and adequately trained private entrepreneurs."
The Junior Achievement organization, established in the U.S. in 1919, has grown from a local initiative of business people to one of the world's largest programs for the education of youth in the area of business and entrepreneurship. The program is currently implemented in over 100 countries, with more than six million students (one million in Europe) participating every year. The program has been active in Serbia since October 2002. To date, USAID has provided nearly $86,000 for its implementation in central Serbia alone.
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| Student at Kragujevac's medical school measures blood pressure at the Regional Center for SMEs |
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| Founders of The Third Element enterprise |
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| Podunavlje County leader Vesna Jeremic buys “stocks” from Junior Achievement students |
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