Our History
The JE concept was born in 1967, with the foundation of the first Junior Enterprise (“JE”) in France. Soon, the fundamental pillars of the movement emerged: close collaboration of high school students towards creating an entrepreneurial impact in project work with local businesses and societal/non-governmental institutions, harnessing academic and growing entrepreneurial potential in the process.
From this first Junior Enterprise, the concept expanded rapidly, leading to the foundation of the first Junior Enterprises in Brazil in 1988, with the first African JEs emerging in Tunisia in 1990. The decade of 2000 then saw the foundation of the first, non-european Confederation in Brazil.
The greatest first milestone for Junior Entrepreneurship was then achieved with the hosting of the first Junior Entrepreneurship World Conference in 2004. From thereon, it however took another 10 years until the establishment of the Global Council, the first international organisation to represent the JE Movement in 2014.