JADE Generations Club: Connecting perspectives, changing Europe.

On the 4th of November JADE organised Generations Club 2014 in Brussels, as a unique opportunity to send a message to a European society by skills mismatch and youth unemployment.

This invitation-only event brings together senior representatives of the private and public sector and entrepreneurs together with young leaders of some of the biggest youth organisations in Europe in order to elaborate high quality output in terms of recommendations for policy makers, business leaders and young people in Europe. The event will last one full day, and it will be hosted by Microsoft Innovation Center Brussels.

This event follows a unique format and round table discussions which combines many highly motivated and experienced participants. That is an early guarantee for inspirational discussions, great ideas and quality results. This year’s theme of the event is youth perspective on entrepreneurial skills, with focus on what are the skills young people need to develop, as well as when and where should these skills be developed, in order to maximise their entrepreneurial impact in society.

Generations Club 2014 will have numerous guests from Microsoft, including Chairman of Microsoft Europe, Mr. Jan Mühlfeit.  The panel discussion will be moderated by Ketan Makwana, CEO of Enterprise Lab. The roundtable discussions will be moderated by Karen Wilson, Board Member and Advisor of the European Foundation for Entrepreneurship Research and Senior Fellow at Bruegel Think Tank.

Among our list of distinguished confirmed guests are: Alessandro Cenderello (Managing Partner for EU Institutions at EY), Daniel Schaubacher (Representative of business ethics network at EBBF), Fabian Zuleeg (Chief Executive at European Policy Centre), Emiliya Hubavenska (EU Commission DG Connect), Simone Baldassarri (EU Commission DG Enterprise and Industry) and Peter Bauer (EU Commission DG Education and Culture).

Educational Transformation Agreement
Microsoft and JADE have worked in close partnership with JADE for several years, in order to extend access to employment and learning opportunities to a broader student network. During Generations Club, we are signing for the second time in a row the tree-year Education Transformation Agreement between the two organisations, as a commitment to work together against ever-increasing challenges, and opportunities.

Jan Mühlfeit about working with JADE

[…]Our  focus in the coming years will be on four areas of joint interest: Skill Development; building an Entrepreneurial Culture; contributing to the growth of Youth Citizenship; and empowering students to drive Social Impact. In our partnership we will look to harness the power of technology to transform learning, empower innovation and to increase student access to training, certification and ‘anytime, anywhere learning opportunities’ which can materially advance skills development and employability.
 
We know JADE, the European Confederation of Junior Enterprises, to be one of the most passionate and effective student organizations  on the world, and are hugely excited about the work that we will continue to do together, in the years to come.

Jan Mühlfeit
Chairman Europe
Microsoft Corporation

Generations Club Report
One of the aims of Generation Club is to elaborate a white paper with recommendations that JADE will distribute to some of the biggest European events such as European Business Summit 2015, but also to international youth congresses such as JADE Spring Meeting. Prior to the event, JADE will have a preparatory meeting with all participating student NGOs, in order to validate some of the most important topics of discussion and to guarantee the quality of the white paper.

This year Generations Club is an event to remember as as it clearly brings some of the leading student ONG representatives of Europe to a scene that is both institutional and corporate. We believe JADE has found a balance between the worlds of policy making, employment and emerging young people who want a more entrepreneurial society and a better quality of life. The answer is, of course, not in the discussion but rather in what we do together to foster the changes that we want. After all, this is what entrepreneurship is all about.