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Setting up a company while you're still at school is one of the most innovative education

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projects that the European Commission supports. In these two schools in Spain and in Estonia,

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pupils aged between 15 and 17 spend a year learning to manage their enterprise, which

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is called a mini-company. It's just like the real thing, defining the company's objectives,

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creating departments, attracting capital, buying or making products, putting together

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a catalogue, looking for customers, negotiating with banks and suppliers, sales, shipments,

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balance sheets and liquidation. This is not role play, but a real business and one which

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the pupils take very seriously. I thought the course was quite a good innovation in

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this establishment and it gave us the chance to get to know the world of business. The

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two schools we visited, Circulina and Cudillero, are located in economically deprived regions.

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What better reason to develop an entrepreneurial spirit? Teramar, the Spanish mini-company,

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imports and exports handicraft products with a mini-company in Mexico. It also sells products

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on the local market. The Estonian company, RAT, uses lots of creativity making fun covers

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for computer mice. It's one way of soothing the stress of overworked employees. They've

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sold them on both local and foreign markets, at international fairs and competitions. This

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experience has enlarged our ability to look at things around us. Thanks to all kind of

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fairs and journeys and European competitions, we have had a change to meet numerous people

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and we have proven to ourselves that if we want to achieve something, then we can manage.

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It has been a great thing that we have achieved it through JOY. Twenty years ago, schools

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wouldn't have included projects like this in their curriculum. Today, things have changed

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and the future of the new generation depends on its entrepreneurial ability. Schools have

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understood this and are looking to develop closer ties with public and private companies.

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I believe the role of the European Commission is first of all to be the promoter behind

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the idea and we see our role also as the facilitator of the dialogue about the mini-companies to

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help the ministries in the member states to talk to each other, the ministers from the

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education side and then the people responsible for economic development, so that the concept

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that we need to provide education for young people to become entrepreneurs would be much

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more widely known. The objective of the mini-companies project is not to turn every pupil into an

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entrepreneur. By choosing to participate, they know that they can have the experience of

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their lives and develop confidence in themselves. The most difficult thing for them is to assume

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responsibilities. If the project is going well, it's thanks to their hard work, but

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if they make a mistake, it is going to impact the bottom line. And so they take responsibility

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for their tasks. This is the most important thing.

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Mini-companies are part of the Lisbon strategy that aims to create prosperity and social

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well-being in Europe by developing the competitiveness of our economy, also through innovative projects.

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By developing a spirit of enterprise at school, these young people can actively prepare for

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a professional career with less risk of failure.

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I think such competence is important to everybody, not only in basic and secondary education,

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but also in higher education and in the systems of lifelong learning. So that's why I strongly

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recommend to our public or private authorities to use entrepreneurship as part of curricula

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in our schools.

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Fernando was managing director of Terramar. Anne had similar responsibilities at RAT,

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and this experience could soon bear fruit.

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For sure, it seems to me right now that I want to go study economics. And in the future,

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to establish my own company, a real company.

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In the future, I want to study economics and work in business, because I like figures,

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mathematics and, above all, money.