• Project Kick Off
• Business Case Development Study Training for high school/university lecturers

This is key activity and is the first step in reaching out to the project’s desired outcomes to be able to commit to Case Studies and Teaching Notes writing. It will allow for a unified approach to the selection of topics and entrepreneurs. The current lack of knowledge on how to select case topic, explore the topic and identify a matching entrepreneur from the closes environment will be eliminated. Moreover, it will enable people to bond and cooperate closer in the process of text development that follows up after this activity. The training will be organized in Prague, Czech in the period 19 – 23 of June 2023 and the participants will be projects staff and high school/university lecturers, 3 per partner. These core case writers will contribute to the overall project goal. The staff of the projects partners and lecturers will directly benefit from the case study writing workshop and will serve as a mean to sustain the know-how and continue producing cases of JA Alumni entrepreneurs after the project is concluded.

• Identification of the potential entrepreneurs to be featured in the case studies

Identification of local entrepreneurial stars from all 5 countries (Nort Macedonia, Slovakia, Poland, Czech and Hungary) will be made in 5 categories, ex.: Green Businesses, E-commerce, IT, Pharmaceuticals, alternative tourism and social enterprises. These entrepreneurs will serve as role models for future entrepreneurs and will stimulate entrepreneurial intentions. This will contribute to understand the joint challenges that entrepreneurs are facing in Central and Eastern Europe.

• Interviews with the selected entrepreneurs and selecting business topics to be elaborated in the cases

Two interviews with the selected entrepreneurs for each case study will be conducted to select business topics that will be further elaborated in the cases.

• Case Study + Video + Teaching Notes Development

The final products of this project are developed 15 case studies (3 per country) with teaching notes and making additional video material to complement the text of the case studies with the entrepreneurs.  These 3 products are cornerstone of the project and added value to the contemporary and quality teaching materials, not just in the V4 countries and North Macedonia but also in the other countries of the JA international network. The cases have a two-fold
aim, to promote local business culture in the V4 and North Macedonia via local entrepreneurs and set them as role models for the students, youth or other potential future entrepreneurs building on their lessons learned. On the other hand, it will contribute to the business skills
development of students crucial for business management showcase that business success is possible from the CEI countries, therefore impact the decision of the young people to remain in their own countries and try to build up business of their own.

• Testing the case studies in classrooms in all five project countries to receive feedback and polish the text

The teachers and the project staff that will develop the case studies will have the opportunity to test the case studies in the classroom according to the developed teaching notes. At the end of the class delivered by using the case based method, all student will fill a short online questionnaire to give the developers precise guidelines how to improve the case study to meet the intended outcomes and take aways from the business case.

• Adjustment and fine-tuning of Case Studies

This activity is of crucial importance for the quality and applicability in the classroom environment for the cases and will be used to fine-tune and improve the content in the case studies and accordingly plan and project the time needed to deliver the case in the classroom. The feedback from the classroom testing of studies will help fine-tune the text according to the intended learning outcomes.

• Dissemination e-Workshops in each partner country for high school lecturers

All 5 countries will organize an on-line dissemination workshop for teaching via cases. It will be delivered by project staff and trained teachers. At least 25 teachers per session will attend the workshop.

• Promotion/ Multiplier event for promoting the Visegrad Entrepreneurial Stars and e-Book of Cases

Gala Hybrid Event will be organized in Skopje, North Macedonia to promote the project and e-book of business case studies to promote and popularize the Visegrad success stories to local stakeholders. The event will send a crucial message of support of V4 to the Western Balkans regional countries and promote culture of doing business in partner countries. It will provide the needed visibly of Visegrad Fund locally and regionally. This activity will crown the efforts of the team and will further stimulate the utilization of case teaching method in educational process by
giving a credit to it.