Innovative business ideas with entrepreneurial courage
Es soll nicht so heyssen "Ich mag meyne wahr so theur geben, als ich kann oder wil", Sondern also "Ich mag meyne wahr so theur geben, als ich soll odder alls recht und billich ist."?
(Martin Luther, Weimarer Ausgabe, 15, 295)
Entrepreneurial thinking and behaviour have a decisive influence on the economic development of our society and are a key driver of innovation, competitiveness and growth. Entrepreneurial activity can make a significant contribution to economic development, especially with an innovative and knowledge-intensive basis.
Entrepreneurial expertise and entrepreneurial courage are indispensable for freelancer, but also for employees in companies, public authorities and other institutions. Already in 2000, the Lisbon Council identified entrepreneurship as one of the "new basic skills" that the entire population needs to live and work in a knowledge-based society.
For this reason, it is particularly important that students are increasingly confronted with entrepreneurial thinking and behaviour.
In close cooperation with the International Martin Luther Foundation, the JugendUnternimmt school competition from 2005 to 2012 introduced young people to a recognisable value-based corporate culture and entrepreneurial thinking and action under the heading of "entrepreneurial courage". By combining freedom and responsibility, entrepreneurship defined in this way was enthusiastically accepted by many young people as a personal perspective for the future.
The new format of the JugendUnternimmt summer school, developed jointly with the Thuringia Foundation for Technology, Innovation and Research (STIFT), builds on this success, teaching fundamental entrepreneurial values and giving participants ideas for further personal development.
The young generation in particular, who will one day play a key role in shaping the future of Europe, is full of innovative strength and ideas. The JugendUnternimmt summer school aims to encourage young people to develop their innovative ideas into viable business models and to experience entrepreneurial courage in the process.
To achieve this, the summer school offers workshops, seminars and discussions on the subject of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial courage. The students also meet with entrepreneurs, scientists, financing experts and coaches who give them a practical insight into everyday business life. In this way, the participants learn about the complexity of entrepreneurial thinking and action through their own ideas.
Since 2013, participation in the JugendUnternimmt summer school has been awarded as a special prize in the respective state competitions of the Jugend forscht competition.