PROJECTS

Sustainability Institute ECOS Skopje
EKOS Skopje, despite being a young organization, was founded by experienced university professors and entrepreneurs to stimulate a sustainable entrepreneurial environment. EKOS, as a project partner, will contribute with their expertise in business case study writing and teaching. Their staff is certified for Harvard Business School Case Based teaching. In addition, they have co-authored a few business case studies of internationally successful Macedonian entrepreneurs. They are experienced in using the case study method as the preferred teaching method in their university and secondary school lecturing. They performed team teaching for high school teachers and university professors more than 8 times (300 teachers), and have conducted over 40 pieces of training for students, youth and the unemployed on the topic related to entrepreneurship, women in business and business models.

Junior Achievement Macedonia (http://jamacedonia.mk/)
Junior Achievement Macedonia (JAM) was founded in October 2017 as one of 123 Members of Junior Achievement Worldwide, which encourages and helps young people for future jobs. Through trainings, financial education, work readiness and entrepreneurship, creates employment pathways and creates new jobs. JAM organizes innovation camps, hackathons/ competitions, teacher trainings, networking events, workshops for youth, round tables, peer-to-peer student exchange programs. The core activity of our work is the JA Company Program that provides economic education for high school students aged 15-19 by allowing them to organize and operate an actual business. Students not only learn how businesses function, they also learn about the structure of one enterprise system and the benefits it provides JAM works on improving partnerships between businesses and schools, to create a generation of young people who are capable of applying innovative approaches and techniques in their curricular activities and are better prepared for the modern workplace. A total of 92 high schools in North Macedonia, out of 131, have been involved in JAM activities so far, from which 317 teachers have been trained and certified and more than 3.500 students have been engaged in innovative project activities.

Junior Achievement Czech (https://jaczech.org/)
JACzech is implementing a comprehensive concept of business education in Czech schools since its founding. They shape the entrepreneurial thinking and financial literacy of young people, connect them with people from practice and help to start their successful professional careers. In cooperation with schools, they create a favorable and motivating environment for the development of personal skills within the entrepreneurial education of students and teachers. With 13 employees, they have an annual operating budget of $425,000. They cooperate with 27 High schools (35% penetration), 401 Primary schools (10% penetration), 1000+ teachers cooperant, and 60,000+ reach of students annually.

Junior Achievement Poland (https://junior.org.pl/)
JAP aims at preparing young people to succeed in the market economy and helping them to gain knowledge and practical skills. For 30 years JAP fulfilled its mission by realizing several entrepreneurship and financial education programs directed to primary and secondary education school students. JAP is proud of its 8,599,713 students taking part in the programs. Currently, they implement 11 programs, where teachers joining their programs receive free access to materials, training and year-round support from a project coordinator. They offer partnerships with the business community to support the education of young people. They conduct mentoring activities, conduct lectures and workshops for students, and become jury members at competitions.

Junior Achievement Slovakia (https://www.jaslovensko.sk/)
JAS is a senior partner in the international network of JA and there is a lot of know-how transfer potential to other project partners. The number of JAS Alumni is over 430K+ in past 30 years, some of which are already successful entrepreneurial role models (www.jaslovensko.sk/uspesni-absolventi/ ). Their knowledge in mobilizing the Alumni to further promote the entrepreneurship is crucial for this project consortia. To add, they have matching activities with students aged 14-19 as well as teacher training, Innovation Camps, Conferences, Webinars, Seminars, Workshops, short-term programs, educational projects, competitions, trade fairs, etc. JAS has a wide network of supporting stakeholders, which could be used in the dissemination activities but also in transferring the experience to the other project partners (www.jaslovensko.sk/partneri/).

Junior Achievement Hungary (https://ejam.hu/hu/)
JA Hungary as our network partner has ongoing activities of international character. JA Hungary connects partners in education, domestic and international business through an entrepreneurial experience where young people aged 6-24 years are inspired to start their entrepreneurial idea with the support of corporate partners, mentors, and teachers. JA Hungary’s entrepreneurial community provides space and support for young people’s development in a wide range of areas, including the challenge of teamwork, responsible decision-making in changing circumstances, the opportunity to take risks and self-fulfillment. JAH focuses on extra-curricular activities and competence development in educational institutions and this is where we see the future of intensive cooperation. JAH organizes various activities throughout the year with a goal to help students and teachers effectively cooperate.

• Project Kick Off
• Business Case Development Study Training for high school/university lecturers

This is key activity and is the first step in reaching out to the project’s desired outcomes to be able to commit to Case Studies and Teaching Notes writing. It will allow for a unified approach to the selection of topics and entrepreneurs. The current lack of knowledge on how to select case topic, explore the topic and identify a matching entrepreneur from the closes environment will be eliminated. Moreover, it will enable people to bond and cooperate closer in the process of text development that follows up after this activity. The training will be organized in Prague, Czech in the period 19 – 23 of June 2023 and the participants will be projects staff and high school/university lecturers, 3 per partner. These core case writers will contribute to the overall project goal. The staff of the projects partners and lecturers will directly benefit from the case study writing workshop and will serve as a mean to sustain the know-how and continue producing cases of JA Alumni entrepreneurs after the project is concluded.

• Identification of the potential entrepreneurs to be featured in the case studies

Identification of local entrepreneurial stars from all 5 countries (Nort Macedonia, Slovakia, Poland, Czech and Hungary) will be made in 5 categories, ex.: Green Businesses, E-commerce, IT, Pharmaceuticals, alternative tourism and social enterprises. These entrepreneurs will serve as role models for future entrepreneurs and will stimulate entrepreneurial intentions. This will contribute to understand the joint challenges that entrepreneurs are facing in Central and Eastern Europe.

• Interviews with the selected entrepreneurs and selecting business topics to be elaborated in the cases

Two interviews with the selected entrepreneurs for each case study will be conducted to select business topics that will be further elaborated in the cases.

• Case Study + Video + Teaching Notes Development

The final products of this project are developed 15 case studies (3 per country) with teaching notes and making additional video material to complement the text of the case studies with the entrepreneurs.  These 3 products are cornerstone of the project and added value to the contemporary and quality teaching materials, not just in the V4 countries and North Macedonia but also in the other countries of the JA international network. The cases have a two-fold
aim, to promote local business culture in the V4 and North Macedonia via local entrepreneurs and set them as role models for the students, youth or other potential future entrepreneurs building on their lessons learned. On the other hand, it will contribute to the business skills
development of students crucial for business management showcase that business success is possible from the CEI countries, therefore impact the decision of the young people to remain in their own countries and try to build up business of their own.

• Testing the case studies in classrooms in all five project countries to receive feedback and polish the text

The teachers and the project staff that will develop the case studies will have the opportunity to test the case studies in the classroom according to the developed teaching notes. At the end of the class delivered by using the case based method, all student will fill a short online questionnaire to give the developers precise guidelines how to improve the case study to meet the intended outcomes and take aways from the business case.

• Adjustment and fine-tuning of Case Studies

This activity is of crucial importance for the quality and applicability in the classroom environment for the cases and will be used to fine-tune and improve the content in the case studies and accordingly plan and project the time needed to deliver the case in the classroom. The feedback from the classroom testing of studies will help fine-tune the text according to the intended learning outcomes.

• Dissemination e-Workshops in each partner country for high school lecturers

All 5 countries will organize an on-line dissemination workshop for teaching via cases. It will be delivered by project staff and trained teachers. At least 25 teachers per session will attend the workshop.

• Promotion/ Multiplier event for promoting the Visegrad Entrepreneurial Stars and e-Book of Cases

Gala Hybrid Event will be organized in Skopje, North Macedonia to promote the project and e-book of business case studies to promote and popularize the Visegrad success stories to local stakeholders. The event will send a crucial message of support of V4 to the Western Balkans regional countries and promote culture of doing business in partner countries. It will provide the needed visibly of Visegrad Fund locally and regionally. This activity will crown the efforts of the team and will further stimulate the utilization of case teaching method in educational process by
giving a credit to it.

1. Case Study Writing Workshop, to be organized in Prague, Czechia as 4 day event in the period 19 – 23 of June 2023
   This is the first step in reaching out to the project’s desired outcomes and key activity to be able to commit to Case Studies and Teaching Notes writing. It will allow for a unified approach to the selection of topics and entrepreneurs. Moreover, it will enable people to bond and cooperate closer in the process of text development that follows up after this activity. Meeting and trusting the professor from EKOS will also be beneficial as they will be at to the writers along the whole case writing process.
2. Case Studies Testing in Classroom, to be organized in all 4 countries in the period 15 of February – 15 of March 2024
   This activity is of crucial importance for the quality and applicability in the classroom environment for the cases and will be used to fine-tune and improve the content in the case studies and accordingly plan and project the time needed to deliver the case in the classroom. The teachers and the project staff that will develop the case studies will have the opportunity to test the case studies in the classroom according to the developed teaching notes. The feedback from the classroom will help fine-tune the text according to the intended learning outcomes. At the end of the class delivered by using the case based method, all student will fill a short online questionnaire to give the developers precise guidelines how to improve the case study to meet the intended outcomes and take aways from the business case.
3. Teacher Dissemination Training, to be organized in all 4 countries in the period 15 – 19 of April 2024
   The aim of the training is to improve the skills of the teacher for use of the case based teaching method but also to popularize the Visegrad Entrepreneurial Stars and encourage them to use the skills. The aim of the 1-day training is dissemination of the project materials including the teaching by case method delivered by the creators of the case studies in each project country.
4. Gala Hybrid Event – Promotion of the Visegrad Entrepreneurial Stars, to be organized in Skopje, North Macedonia in the period 6 – 10 of May 2024
   The Gala Hybrid Event will be organized to promote the e-Book of Business Case Studies – Visegrad Entrepreneurial Stars and e-Book of Teaching Notes in North Macedonia to promote and popularize the Visegrad success stories to local stakeholders. The event will send a crucial message of support of V4 to the Western Balkans regional countries and promote culture of doing business in partner countries. It will provide the needed visibly of Visegrad Fund locally and regionally. This activity will crown the efforts of the team and will further stimulate the utilization of case teaching method in educational process by giving a credit to it.

We proudly present Visegrad Entrepreneurial Stars from the Macedonian City of Skopje, Mr. Kristijan Ugrinovski, founder of GYRO HOUSE – Skopje.
MEET YOUR LOCAL BUSINESS MODEL! Kristijan Ugrinovski is young inspiring entrepreneur, founder of fast food restaurant GYRO HOUSE – Skopje.
Gyro House Skopje is a story of determination, innovation, and business planning in details. From a pursuit of a childhood dream to introduce a unique fast-food concept to the Macedonian market, Kristijan Ugrinovski’s journey involves gaining personal competences in the creating gyro recipes and operations of food preparation to building a brand, operations procedures and securing finances.
The project is co-financed by the Governments of the Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund.
The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation.

We proudly present Visegrad Entrepreneurial Stars from the Macedonian City of Skopje, Ms. Sanja Lazarevska, founder of April22!
MEET YOUR LOCAL BUSINESS MODEL! Sanja Lazarevska is young inspiring woman who explored the intersection of tradition, innovation and sustainability, showcasing the potential for a positive impact on the fashion industry and the community. She shares her journey, followed by an extensive period of knowledge acquisition and securing necessary funding to begin the transition from traditional production to circular fashion model.
The project is co-financed by the Governments of the Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

Another milestone achieved in our Entrepreneurial Stars project funded by the Visegrad+ Fund!
Proud to have successfully completed our Teacher Dissemination Training on 12 of March 2024 in Skopje, empowering educators from North Macedonia to impact their students that business success is possible in their country.
Together, we’re igniting a passion for entrepreneurship in the next generation by showcasing local successful stories.
The project is co-financed by the Governments of the Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

The project Visegrad Entrepreneurial Starts will provide the basis for developing and classroom testing of 15 (fifteen) case studies for local and successful entrepreneurs from the Visegrad region and North Macedonia. The focus will be on Green Businesses, e-commerce, IT, Pharmaceuticals, alternative tourism and social enterprises.

Our innovative i.e. triple approach to entrepreneurial challenges: a case study on specific business issues, a short video featuring the entrepreneur, and a teaching note, will help students to develop a wide range of vital professional and life skills, including negotiation, analysis, defending and challenging viewpoints, teamwork and much more. Our project team will test the case studies in the classroom environment and fine-tune them before making them publicly available in the languages of the partner countries as well as in the English language.

Class participants will be able to ‘step into the shoes’ of the protagonist to discuss possible solutions and analyze the pros and cons of various approaches to the problem of entrepreneurial ventures. The project team will develop accompanying teaching notes to guide the lecturer via the classroom experience and make them feel more comfortable using the cases. The innovative approach is the triple approach to entrepreneurial challenges: a case study on specific business issues, a short video featuring the entrepreneur, and a teaching note. With this bottom-up approach, we will secure that the process is complete and understandable. The case studies will be additionally tested in the classroom environment and fine-tuned before making them publicly available in the languages of the partner countries as well as in the English language. By encouraging discussion and videos in the classroom we move closer to Z-gen.