On Thursday 9 June Jonk Entrepreneuren hosted the finale of their flagship program in which highschoolers get to take their first steps into entrepreneurship.
96 Mini-Entreprises (micro businesses) were created this year within the program by pupils from 23 different schools. 16 out of these made it to the big finale held last week at the Kinepolis in Kirchberg.
There the students had four minutes to hold a presentation that would convince the jury and the grand public of their idea. This jury was composed out of 12 professionals, such as CEO’s and Communication managers but also teachers from various high schools.
Before the presentations, Claude Meisch, the minister of education held a welcome speech, he underlined how inspired the students are: “You want to achieve more, a lot of the ideas (presented here) have a social aspect, so you want to make the world a better place. Or a sustainably aspect, so that you can take better care of our planet. (…) In the future we need an economy that is more social and sustainable.”
Winners of the evening
After the presentations, the first place was awarded to Citygum, an idea created by five students from the Lycée Aline Mayrisch. They have commercialized the first Luxembourgish chewing-gum. On top of that they have already launched co-operations with a Luxembourgish clothing brand, influencers, and artists. Their witty presentation also won them the presentation award.
JonkJob.lu received the second place. They developed a job platform specifically for mini jobs which are typically done by students, like babysitting and tutoring. Before launching their job platform, they interviewed their peers to find out where and what the actual demand is. Their platform allowed 50 people to find a job throughout the year. On top of the second place of the main award, they were also awarded with the public choice’s award and the innovation award.
The students that created the self-made dog treats Bellogg’s came in third place. The girls from the Lycée Michel Lucius commercialised two different types of dog treats and sold them across the country.
Each year the Mini-Entreprises program gives the possibility to young students to find out for themselves what entrepreneurship is all about. They must create a product or service, market it and find places to sell it on their own. But they can always count on the support of a teacher and a coach from the professional world.
Many students stated in their presentations they would love to continue their ideas and develop them into real businesses by registering it officially as such.
