Turn ideas into opportunities and develop the practical skills needed to plan, launch and grow a business or social enterprise.
JSTA’s Entrepreneurship programme helps participants understand how businesses work while developing commercial awareness, creativity and problem-solving skills through practical business challenges and project-based activities.
From Idea to Action
Duration: 3 Months | 6 Months | 1 Year Format: Initial Training | Individual Business Tasks | Group Challenges | Hybrid Working Module Group Size: Up to 10 participants
Participants begin by exploring the fundamentals of entrepreneurship before developing their own ideas through research, planning and practical assignments. Group activities encourage participants to exchange ideas, solve business challenges and practise pitching, while hybrid working develops experience in virtual meetings, online collaboration and independent project management.
What Participants May Do
The programme gives participants experience of activities associated with entrepreneurs, start-up teams and junior business roles, including:
Researching business and social enterprise ideas
Identifying customer needs and market opportunities
Conducting competitor and market research
Developing customer profiles and value propositions
Creating basic business and marketing plans
Estimating costs, pricing and potential income
Preparing presentations and pitching ideas
Supporting promotional and customer-engagement activities
Working collaboratively to solve business challenges
More experienced participants may progress to business model development, financial forecasting, market-entry planning, growth strategies, risk assessment, digital business models, partnership development and evaluating business performance.
What Candidates Can Learn
The existing JSTA page covers the journey from developing an initial business idea through to business planning, marketing, financial management and managing risks. It also highlights innovation, creativity and problem-solving.
Business Ideas & Opportunity Development Learn how to identify opportunities, assess customer problems and turn an initial idea into a realistic business concept.
Business Planning Understand the key elements of a business plan, including objectives, target markets, products or services, operations and routes to growth.
Marketing & Customer Development Explore target audiences, customer needs, branding, promotion and different ways businesses can attract and retain customers.
Finance & Commercial Awareness Develop an understanding of costs, pricing, revenue, budgeting, cash flow and the financial considerations involved in running a business.
Risk, Innovation & Problem-Solving Learn how entrepreneurs evaluate risks, respond to challenges and use creativity and innovation to develop better solutions. These areas build directly on the themes of the existing programme.
Business Projects & Challenges
Participants may put their ideas into practice through projects such as:
Start-up Concept – Develop an idea, target customer and value proposition
Business Plan Project – Create a structured plan for a new or developing venture
Market Research Challenge – Research customers, competitors and market opportunities
Marketing & Launch Plan – Develop promotional activities for a product or service
Business Finance Exercise – Work with pricing, costs, budgets and revenue projections
Pitching Challenge – Present a business or social enterprise idea and respond to questions
Social Enterprise Project – Explore a business solution designed to create both economic and social value
These activities help participants develop initiative, commercial awareness, leadership, communication, negotiation, decision-making and presentation skills.
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
Entrepreneurship skills are valuable beyond starting a business. Participants can learn to identify opportunities, take initiative, communicate ideas, make informed decisions and adapt to challenges—skills that can also be applied within SMEs, charities, social enterprises and larger organisations.
The programme may support pathways into self-employment, freelancing, start-ups, social enterprise, Business Development, Business Support, Sales, Marketing and other commercially focused roles.
This also retains an important message from the existing page: entrepreneurship can be relevant both to people who want to start their own venture and those who want to develop entrepreneurial skills that can be applied in different professional settings.
Please Note: Our core mentoring, workshops and work-experience programmes are 100% free for eligible young people aged 16–25. We also deliver paid commercial training to businesses and individuals; 100% of that profit is reinvested into our free youth programmes.
