We contribute to increasing the quality of teaching - teacher training on the debate club

27 teachers from 8 Regional Education Offices in Albania were included in the accredited training of the "School and Community Debate Club" module conducted by JAA on November 18-19, 2022. The participants increased their knowledge and developed practical skills in delivering this module of JAA and became more familiar with the debate format, its main rules and the importance of Debate Clubs for students and the community in which they live. Such trainings accredited by the Ministry of Education and Sports will continue to be conducted by JAA.

Reactivating debating clubs in universities and increasing students' capacities

With the new academic start of 2022-2023, Debate Clubs were reactivated in 14 public and private Faculties and Universities in Albania, part of the "Debating Economics" program. For the third year in a row Junior Achievement of Albania is implementing the debate program "Debating Economics" in cooperation with the partner Universities of this program, contributing to the increase of students' capacities not only in the field of debate, but also equipping them with the necessary skills for their professional development. Immediately after the reactivation of Debate Clubs for this academic year, 129 students from 8 Faculties and Universities part of the program were included during the months of November-December in the first training organized by JA of Albania. The first training for this academic year focused on the format and main rules of the debate format implemented in this program.

STRENGTHENING THE SUPPORTING ENVIRONMENT FOR STUDENT COMPANIES

Gjirokastër, 2 February 2023 As part of the campaign "Strengthening the supporting environment for student companies" undertaken within the framework of the implementation of the "By Leap" project, JAA held a round table in Gjirokastër with the participation of representatives of local public institutions, non-governmental organizations, students and teachers of the "Student Companies" in Gjirokastër district. The table served as an information space not only on the program of the "Student Company" and the need of the established Companies for more support, but also on the initiatives, programs and projects that are applied by public institutions and organizations that can provide real support for students not only during the application of this module at school, but also outside it.

Forming the growth and transformation of youth Startups

Within the By Leap project: "Linking education, regional skills and potentials with regional youth employment practices" in a 4-month period, JAA supported the transformation of student and youth business initiatives into SMEs, through assistance and consultancy and transformational mentoring. From 30 applications 10 startups and ideas entered the pre-incubation stage based on 4 pillars: Defining the business goal, developing hypotheses, successful experiments, using data and information for decision making. The 4 pillars were used to empower and helped the 10 selected ideas, in validating their ideas/driving startups.Through this data, developing ideas/startups made adjustments to existing ideas or turned to another direction discovered through experiments.At the end of pre-incubation phase, the 4 most performing founders/teams were: Switch Technologies, LikSad eBikes, Crazy Creative House, Dora Creative. The transformation process of the 4 selected startup companies (with JA Alumni founders) was created as a series step-by-step workshops and mentoring on the legal framework for starting a business; defining the problem and other possible solutions in the market; improving the proposed value; financial model; marketing and visibility strategies, securing funds and investment readiness. At the end of the transformation process, the 4 startups developed: Pitch Deck, the tool to present the potential of their startup to different investors; the work plan for registering their business according to the best fiscal form and the business plan. The founders of the 4 startups are equipped with the necessary tools and knowledge to start their business activity and strive for sustainability and growth .