The final of the 10th edition of the Young Enterprise Project (YEP), organised in collaboration with Banque Internationale à Luxembourg, took place on Tuesday 4 May 2021. Of the 22 initial teams, five were selected to participate in this final.
A total of 96 students from higher education and various BTS (Brevet de Technicien Supérieur) from 4 high schools (Ecole de Commerce et de Gestion, Lycée technique d’Ettelbruck, Lycée Guillaume Kroll and Lycée des Arts et Métiers) participated in the 2020-2021 edition
A complete year programme.
YEP is a programme offered at the higher education level through which students have to develop a business plan in teams based on an innovative product or service idea. Each team must identify an opportunity, develop a business plan and determine its viability.
The link between the educational and professional communities is important for these young people
Each team is accompanied by a coach from the professional world. One of the strengths of the programme is that it creates an exchange between the students and experts in their field. In addition to working on a business plan, the students also learn important lessons and gain insight into the world of work.
Several trainings were also conducted this year. To support the teams in the initial phase of their project, the students benefited from a training on the “Business Model Canvas” by nyuko and a “Design Thinking” workshop by ArtSquare Lab.
A jury evaluated each team
Dominique Moeremans, ECG, Stéphanie Simões, LTL, Philippe Weisen, BIL, Gilles Feipel, Cactus, Thibaut Ciccone, nyuko and Maxime Castermans, BIL formed the jury for this 20-21 edition and accompanied and evaluated the participating teams throughout the year.
For the final, which took place in a hybrid format, each group had 4 minutes to present its project to the jury at BIL.
“The finalists of the 10th edition of the Young Enterprise Project have shown great maturity, with business plans that are almost ready to be launched. We can feel their entrepreneurial spirit, their taste for innovation and their desire to invest in meaningful projects. Supporting Luxembourg entrepreneurs is the essence of our job at BIL, and it is a pleasure to work with Jonk Entrepreneuren Luxembourg and the students every year.,” said Philippe Weisen, Head of Startups, Banque Internationale à Luxembourg and member of the Board of Directors of JEL.
3 winning teams
The first prize was won by the “EDU re-print” team composed of Carole Theis, Luko Mandic, Bob Peller and Antoine Kohn from the Lycée technique Arts & métiers. The concept is based on raising young people’s awareness of the circular economy. The project is built around 4 steps:
- Raising awareness among schools and students via thematic meetings;
- Collecting plastic bottles together with the young people;
- Transforming the collected bottles into filaments for 3D printers.
- Creating, again together with the pupils, everyday objects in 3D from these same transformed filaments.
Team teacher: Djamel Fellag
Team coach: Jeannot Schroeder.
The second prize was awarded to the “Local Farm” team composed of Nadia Schmit, Bruna Alves, Marjorie Volken and Raphaëlle Neuss from the Ecole de Commerce et de Gestion. The idea of this team was to offer Luxembourg producers an online platform for their organic products for retail and parcel sales. At the same time, country meals, meeting points to collect orders and gourmet markets are organised to keep a human dimension between producers and customers.
Team teacher: Michèle Friederich
Team coach: David Poncin.
The BTC (Be The Change) team came third. Sébastien Gaggini, Liss Keuop, Marvin Magail and Barbara Gomes from the School of Business and Management targeted the problem of plastic packaging of various products, which they replace with cardboard boxes. These products would be handed over by students for a fee.
Team teacher: Stefania Alunni
Team Coach: Thierno Diallo
Social Media Challenge
The 5 finalists of the Young Enterprise Project also presented their projects in a one-minute video that was broadcast on social networks. The “EDU re-print” team got the most “Likes” and won the “Social Media Challenge”.
2 Alumni Leadership Awards
Marjorie Volken (Local Farm team, ECG) and Sara Grün (Kit Secure team, ECG) received the Alumni Leadership Award from the Alumni Committee. This award is given to students who have demonstrated leadership qualities and the ability to lead their team.