Start Up Now

This one-year entrepreneurship program trains around 2,000 youth each year in business entrepreneurship and financial literacy. The program is a unique opportunity for youth to understand the entrepreneurial process while gaining practical experience under the guidance of senior mentors from the world of business and entrepreneurship; youth participants will acquire occupational, entrepreneurial, and technological skills that will serve them for a lifetime.

This innovative youth entrepreneurship program was established in collaboration with the Israel Innovation Authority (formerly the Office of the Chief Scientist) and provides a unique opportunity for participants to gain exposure to the business world, and to experience, learn, and lead a business start-up while still in high school.

The youth participating in the program establish start-ups from the conceptual stage to the business development stage, acquiring the knowledge and skills for success and integration into senior positions in the world of business and entrepreneurship. They will learn business and entrepreneurship concepts and acquire various technological tools. The youth participants will truly experience the entrepreneurial process from the concept stage to the product’s manufacture and sale.

Many of the Start Up Now groups  are sponsored and work in collaboration with high-tech, economic, and industrial companies. Among the many companies that adopt or have adopted Start Up Now groups are – Amdocs, Lumenis, Meta Israel (formerly Facebook), Fyber, AIG, the First International Bank, and others.

Program objectives:

1. Opening the door for youth to enter the world of entrepreneurship, with an emphasis on youth in Israel’s geographical and socioeconomic periphery

2. Providing tools and knowledge for integration into the entrepreneurial and business worlds, preparing youth to be economically and professionally independent in the new world of work

3.Empowering the youth participants and strengthening their sense of self-efficacy

Scope of the program:

each group participates in approximately 200 hours of activities per year(weekly/biweekly meetings).

Target audience:

youth in grades seven through twelve (each group is made up of one age group).

Structure of the program:

special events and weekly meetings lasting about two hours, about 30 meetings over 10 months (depending on the academic calendar).

Key program milestones:

- Introduction to entrepreneurship and business

- Creative thinking and brainstorming

- Go, no-go committee

- A tour of high-tech and industrial companies

- Market research

- Feasibility test

- Developing a prototype

- Participating in the Entrepreneur of the Year competition

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