Partnership with JEE - Junior Enterprises Europe

The partnership between ABIS - The Academy of Business in Society and JEE – Junior Enterprises Europe (formerly JADE- European Confederation of Junior Enterprises) aims to engage junior entrepreneurs in education and training initiatives to develop mindsets and skills required to accelerate the transition towards sustainable business models, combining business growth with positive impact.

JEE – Junior Enterprises Europe (JADE - European Confederation of Junior Enterprises) is a non-profit umbrella organization that represents more than 28000 students of higher education institutions, currently working in 330 student led-organizations in 14 countries across Europe. These organizations, also known as Junior Enterprises, are the environment where students can develop their entrepreneurial skills while being at university by providing more than 4350 consultancy projects to SMEs every year.

Both ABIS and JEE are convinced that there is a need in society to connect and facilitate collaboration across both networks to foster sustainable development. We believe that through our shared values we can build bridges and bring valuable insights to our members and society at large. ABIS and JEE agreed to share their networks and experiences to have impact on society by strengthening mutual participation in each other’s activities and projects and by developing new joint activities on three levels – local, international and internal.

The two organizations will contribute to each other’s strategy development and governance. As a first step, ABIS’ CEO Ivo Matser agreed to join JEE Advisory Board to support their activities on a strategic level.

To maintain a long-lasting and close collaboration ABIS has already collaborated with JADE on different occasions throughout the first half of 2019:

• JADE invited ABIS to contribute to the JADE Spring Conference through a speaking engagement and as member of the jury of their Excellence Awards in March
• ABIS delivered a Scenario Exploration System workshop at JADE Spring Conference
• The junior enterprise JEToP at the Polytechnic University of Turin contributed to organization of the ABIS Knowledge into Action Forum in May
• ABIS delivered a Scenario Exploration System workshop for the Westminster Business Consultants junior enterprise at the University of Westminster
• JADE invited ABIS to present the recently signed partnership at the JADE Handover ceremony in July

After an inspiring JADE Handover ceremony, where the New Executive Board 2019/2020 was officially announced, ABIS team has met the incoming President Florian Schildheuer to discuss the future collaboration and the development of joint activities for the year 2019/2020. 

ABIS will take part in the JADE Summer Conference on 26 – 27 July in Coimbra, Portugal with our increasingly popular Scenario Exploration System (SES) workshop, that is using innovative gaming methodology to help current and future leaders in understanding the complex systems and potential of individual and collective action in addressing global environmental and societal challenges.