PHOTO. The team from the IT High School in Cluj, the 1st prize at the county stage of the Marathon for Entrepreneurial EducationFOTO. The team from the IT High School in Cluj, first prize at the county stage of the Marathon for Entrepreneurial Education

The team from the “Tiberiu Popoviciu” IT High School in Cluj-Napoca won the first prize, worth 3,000 lei, at the county stage of the Marathon for Entrepreneurial Education.

The National Confederation for Women’s Entrepreneurship (CONAF) Cluj Branch organized for the first time the county semi-final “Marathon for Entrepreneurial Education” – the 2nd edition, business plan competition.

The competition is part of the homonymous national program addressed to high school students and organized in partnership with the Ministry of Education, the West University of Timișoara, the Financial Supervision Authority and the National Association of Entrepreneurs.

The team from the IT High School in Cluj, first prize at the county stage of the Marathon for Entrepreneurial Education

In the county stage, the best business plans presented by the 8 teams made up of 37 high school students from 4 high schools were awarded.

The students are from the “Tiberiu Popoviciu” Informatics High School, the “Emil Racoviță” National College, the “Gheorghe Șincai” National College and the “Onisifor Ghibu” Theoretical High School.

The county stage of the contest was organized in partnership with the Cluj County Inspectorate, Cluj-Napoca City Hall, Cluj County Council and Babeș-Bolyai University.

This year the program will be held in over 20 counties, with the grand finale to be held in May, in Bucharest.

The winning application of students from the IT High School in Cluj

Almost 700 high school students from 4 high schools in Cluj participated in the entrepreneurial education classes, supported by volunteer entrepreneurs, within the “Marathon for Entrepreneurial Education”, a meticulous educational course designed to support them in exploring their vocation and developing entrepreneurial skills applicable in the environment real business, and culminating in the business plan competition.

The grand prize of the semi-final was awarded by the students of the “Tiberiu Popoviciu” IT High School, whose coordinator was teacher Florentina Rusa.

Their project, “TransiTech”, involves the creation of an application that enables the digitization of tickets and subscriptions for public transport.

The team from “Racoviță”, in the 2nd position. The students from Informatics received another award

In second place was the project called “Volunteer Now”, created by the students of the “Emil Racoviță” National College, who had Rareș Damian as their coordinating teacher.

The project consists of creating an intuitive application that facilitates the participation of young people in volunteer activities and helps both non-governmental organizations and companies to find volunteers.

The third place went to the “Mak Performance Tuning” project, which involves the establishment of a car service, which has a dedicated application to allow customers to see their car in real time being serviced.

The project is carried out by the team of the “Tiberiu Popoviciu” High School of Informatics together with the coordinating teacher Florentina Rusa.

Cash prizes

The three finalist teams were rewarded with cash prizes. The team ranked first received a prize worth 3,000 lei.

The second place team was awarded 2,000 lei, while the third place team was rewarded with 1,000 lei.

Moreover, the finalist teams will participate in the grand final in Bucharest, where they will measure their strength with “the best of the best”.

150 entrepreneurs held classes in front of the students

At the second edition of the “Entrepreneurial Education Marathon”, starting in January and until now, more than 15,000 students have participated in the entrepreneurial education classes.

The entrepreneurial education classes were supported by more than 150 entrepreneurs.

The county stages started on March 21 in Galați, this being followed by the one in Timiș on April 4, Brașov on April 8, Brăila on April 10, Argeș on April 12, Alba on April 15, Neamț on April 16, Satu Mare on the 17 April, Tulcea on April 18, Bucharest on April 19, Prahova on April 22.

Semifinals of the business plan competition will also take place in the counties: Arad, Bihor, Buzău, Constanța, Gorj, Dolj, Giurgiu, Iasi, Sibiu. From this year the program was also taken over by the Republic of Moldova.

Cluj students can keep pace with change

Cristina Chiriac, the president of CONAF, shows that a report published by the Investment Monetary Fund shows that almost 40% of existing jobs at the international level are exposed to artificial intelligence which, according to Goldman Sachs, could replace up to 300 million jobs, until the year 2030.

“This phenomenon will affect approximately 25% of the workloads in the US and Europe, and even if we adults are scared, the high school students from Cluj have shown us that they can not only keep up with the change, but also master it.

The foundation of this project is vocation and I like to think that it is the duty of our generation to give confidence, strength, courage and above all tools to those who are in the education system today.

Entrepreneurs or not, employees or employers, bureaucrats, artists, doctors, lawyers, tomorrow’s labor market players earn their marks today, and the direction must be sustainable, positive and above all solid

The Marathon for Entrepreneurial Education, held in almost half of Romania, is an effort of a social layer, generically called entrepreneurs, on the steep slope of the gratitude curve, and the efforts of the CONAF Cluj branch have demonstrated that we are representative, not only at the national level but also in the local communities, so beautifully culturally defined”, said Cristina Chiriac.

Successful models for students

The high school participants at the event enjoyed the inspirational presence of Virgil Ianțu, who provided them with a valuable perspective and a model of success worth following.

The event was moderated by Călin Iepure, CEO of Bizz Club Romania, expert in public speaking, the art of influence, improvisation, negotiation and sales growth.

The president of CONAF – Cristina Chiriac, the president of CONAF Cluj Branch – Sigina Luca (photo), the rector of Babeș-Bolyai University, university prof. Dr. Daniel David and the general inspector of IȘJ Cluj, Marinela Marc.

The projects were judged by the vice-president of CONAF and the Founder of Kids in Business – Nicoleta Munteanu, member of the board of CONAF and the director of UNITH2B Architects – Hildegard Brandl, member of the board of CONAF and the entrepreneur – Tatian Diaconu, evaluator and investment consultant – Sorin Popa , the regional director of Auchan – Constantin Buznea.