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EE-HUB round table in Budapest – towards a more cohesive and entrepreneurial Europe

On 4 June, JA Europe organised a Round Table in Budapest in the old Treasury Hall of the Ministry of Finance. The event gathered around 60 representatives from Ministries, the business community and education institutions. Andrea Bocskor, Hungarian MEP and MEP Ambassador of the EE-HUB opened the event, and was followed by Dr. György László Secretary of State for Economic Strategy and Regulation of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary.

Hosted by the Citi Foundation, the round table is part of the Citi Foundation’s efforts to tackle youth unemployment through its Pathways to Progress initiative. Pathways to Progress partners with expert NGOs, such as JA Europe to develop employability skills and entrepreneurial mind-sets in today’s youth. Complementary to the direct youth impact with the JA programmes, in 2017, the Citi Foundation reinforced its engagement in a strategic project supporting JA Europe’s Entrepreneurship Education Network (EE-HUB) and established six national HUBs in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Turkey. The intent of these clusters is to mobilize stakeholders from European, regional and national level in the effort to increase penetration and mainstream entrepreneurship education.

The first panel aimed to showcase the main achievements and best practices from the project countries and included Mustafa Hilmi Çolakoğlu, Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of National Education from Turkey; Rosen Dimitrov, Head of Public Affairs at Novartis Bulgaria; Valentin Stancu, School Country Inspector from the Romanian Ministry of Education and Dr. Kármen Billo representing the Ministry of Technology and Innovation of Hungary. Kevin Murray, Citi’s CEO for Central – Europe and Country Head for Hungary shared insights about business’ investment in entrepreneurship education in this region.

In order to illustrate the impact entrepreneurship education programmes can have on young people’s personal and professional pathway, Boris Kolev, Managing partner at DigiMark and FERD’s List honouree 2017, stressed the need for closer collaboration between the business and education communities in order to prepare young people for the future of jobs.

The second panel focused on a discussion on how to foster synergies between the different stakeholders involved in order to develop evidence-based policies and strategies for greater uptake of entrepreneurship education programmes in schools across Europe. EE-HUB experts Anthony Gribben, Head of Enterprise and Entrepreneurship of the European Training Foundation and Alessandro Cenderello, Managing Partner for EU Institutions of Ernst & Young shared an overview of the progress that has already been made in the area. Dr. Márton Herceg, Head of Strategy and Impact at the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) presented the role the EIT can play to foster a closer collaboration between the different stakeholders in the ecosystem, while Dr. Todd Davey, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Telecom Business School in Paris shared some of the findings of a recent study funded by the European Commission on University-Business cooperation in Europe.

The next day, ministry representatives and the JA national offices held a workshop to concretely progress on the development of national strategies in different areas of entrepreneurship education.

Participants agreed on the need for better monitoring and impact assessment as well as teachers’ support.

About JA Europe

JA Europe (www.jaeurope.org) is Europe’s largest provider of education programmes for entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy, reaching 3.6 million students in 40 countries in 2017. JA Europe brings the public and private sectors together to provide young people in primary and secondary schools and early university with high-quality education programmes to teach them about enterprise, entrepreneurship, business and economics in a practical way. JA Europe is the European Regional Operating Centre for JA Worldwide®.

About Citi

Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.

Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com  | Twitter: @Citi | YouTube: www.youtube.com/citi  | Blog: http://blog.citigroup.com  | Facebook: www.facebook.com/citi  | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi

About Citi Foundation

The Citi Foundation works to promote economic progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities around the world. We invest in efforts that increase financial inclusion, catalyse job opportunities for youth, and reimagine approaches to building economically vibrant cities. The Citi Foundation's “More than Philanthropy” approach leverages the enormous expertise of Citi and its people to fulfil our mission and drive thought leadership and innovation. For more information, visit www.citifoundation.com.

For press enquiries, please contact: JA Europe Communications - media@jaeurope.org

CITI Foundation - Rachael Barber - rachael.barber@citi.com