TEENnovator is an educational program for students in grades 10 and 11, in which Gabrovo will have the opportunity to participate this year. Its duration is 9 months and in it a team of 10 young people with two mentors-entrepreneurs meet every week and develop their soft skills, such as teamwork, adaptability, presentation, time management, dealing with failure and starting their own business.
Teeninnovator has been piloted in Bulgaria since the 2018-2019 school year, when a total of 50 students from four capital schools participate in the program. In five years, it has grown more than ten times, and during the 2022-2023 school year, nearly 650 students from 33 Bulgarian cities and 80 mentors – entrepreneurs from all areas of business – are participating in it.
Teeninnovator is based on learning through practice and is focused on stimulating students' creative thinking. At the end of the school year, the teams present their first startup companies to a jury of investors, and this is their start in the business world.
Meetings between mentors and students are weekly, in continuation of one academic year, and move along a specially developed program of topics, thanks to which students learn how to do business from "A to Z", how to work in a team and how to present to investors.
The program is free of charge, which gives equal access to entrepreneurship to all young people of this age.
Any student in the 10th or 11th grade can sign up for Teeninnovator, no matter what town they live in or what type of school they study in.
On October 27 and 28, all students and mentors gather in Sofia Tech Park for two days - Weekend of Ideas. Then, for the first time, they work on initial presentations of their startup ideas and present them to a jury of companies. From February to May, the teams work on building their startups together with mentors and experts from different companies. On May 18, again at Sofia Tech Park, everyone presents their businesses to a jury of investors and the first three teams receive funding.
In the end all participants receive certificates, which are a bonus when applying to university, for an internship or for a job.
For students who do not study and live in Sofia, the program takes care of the organization and transport for the two major events in the city - Weekend of Ideas and Final Competition.
Sign up to participate in the program HERE. Let it happen by the end of this week – October 13!!!
You can view the Teennovator website, see the mentors, photos from previous editions, questions and answers, in the link - Тийноватор (teenovator.bg).
