General Information
The JA Europe Company of the Year Competition brings together the best student JA mini-companies from all across Europe that participated in the Company Programme during the current academic.
Since its launch in 1919, the JA Company Programme offers students aged 15-18 the opportunity to learn how to move a business idea from concept to reality and to discover first-hand how business works. Over the course of a school year, students develop a product or a service, create their own company and manage their business from start to finish.
The JA Europe Company of the Year Competition is not simply a business competition for young people. We attempt to balance the business achievements of each team as a whole with their members’ individual personal development. It is therefore not sufficient for a team to only run a financially successful mini-company or to have created an exciting product or service in order to win the award. Mini-company members must also demonstrate that they understand how and why the mini-company performed as it did and understand the differences and similarities between their mini-companies and the real companies on their markets.
In the following guidebook, you find all the relevant information about the competition (requirements, criteria and guidelines). All participants should read this information carefully and consult any need for additional details with their JA Member organisation.
Read more here.
Age Requirements
Achievers representing their companies in the competition must be at least 15 years old and no more than 21 years old on the date of the competition.
Team Requirements
Any member of JA Europe may send a team. A mini-company should not participate in the competition more than once.
The number of official participants per JA mini-company is limited to min. 3 and max. 5 students. A student may NOT attend as an official participant if he/she has participated as a member of a team in any of the past competitions.
If additional achievers from the same mini-company attend the event, they may NOT participate in any part of the competition (during the interview with the Main jury nor the interview with any of the signature juries).
Language Requirements
The official language of the competition is English. Teams who are not fluent in English are allowed to make use of an interpreter and/or a dictionary. The competition is not designed to be a test of English. A good command of conversational English does not necessarily mean that team members are able to understand and convey quite complex business concepts in English.
However, a certain minimum level of English is expected. It does not have to be perfect but shall allow for normal/basic communication including a basic command of business terminology (such as revenues, costs and margin; and ability to explain the difference between them) during the interviews with the juries.
