Representatives of the region took part in the competition for the first time.
The student mini-company of the Lviv Higher Vocational Polytechnic School Be Sweet, which participated in the “Company” program from Junior Achievement Ukraine, became the winner of the Public Choice Award 2023 (“People’s Choice”) nomination from the American telecommunications campaign AT&T and the most popular company at the Virtual Expo exhibition, having collected 3,000 audience votes.
The Gen-E 2023 Youth Entrepreneurship Competition ended on July 14 in Istanbul. This is an annual event organized by the Junior Achievement worldwide network, where teams from 40 European countries compete for the title of the best business idea. This year, more than 800 young entrepreneurs along with teachers and mentors, including talented students and pupils from the Lviv Region, became participants.
“The Gen-E European entrepreneurship competition enables young people to present their own business projects at the international level, develop presentation skills, meet and exchange entrepreneurial experience with peers from other countries. Our entire team is satisfied with the high level of representation of our participants. We have gained useful experience and now we are starting to prepare for the next Gen-E 2024 competition in Italy,” said Vira Drugova, head of the Junior Achievement Ukraine “Company” program, about the participation of the Ukrainian delegation.
Be Sweet is a mini-company that uses natural ingredients and without added sugar to make sweets according to ancient traditions. They will be liked by fans of sweets, and even by those who do not like them very much, because Be Sweet candies are a combination of tasty and useful! The team participated in Entrepreneurship Camps from Junior Achievement Ukraine and presented their sweets at the Youth Entrepreneurship Fair, where many people willing to taste them gathered around their products.
“We’re really excited to win the People’s Choice award at Gen-E. It is incredibly nice, we are grateful to everyone who voted for us. The competition was of a high level, there were many powerful participants from all over Europe. Therefore, when we heard that our student mini-company from Ukraine won in the “People’s Choice” nomination, we simply could not believe our luck! There was a mixture of emotions – joy, gratitude, admiration, and most importantly – we were proud of our achievements!”, the members of the BeSweet mini-company shared their impressions.
For reference:
Junior Achievement Ukraine is a non-profit public organization, a provider of educational programs on entrepreneurship and financial literacy for young people. The organization is part of the worldwide Junior Achievement network, which has been operating since 1919 in more than 100 countries. Its mission is to prepare young people for the labor market, career and personal development.
From September 2023, it is planned to expand to 7 new regions – Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi regions and the city of Kyiv – and resume operations in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions. It should be noted that the Lviv region was the first among other regions of Ukraine to start cooperation with JA Ukraine after the full-scale invasion.⠀
The project is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and supported by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ).
LODA