The European University of Tirana, organized for the tenth consecutive year the competition “The best business idea for 2022” with the students of the Faculty of Economics, Business and Development. Through this competition, the purpose is to support and promote entrepreneurship and innovation among students, also, to form and further develop entrepreneurial competence, which is crucial today to move forward in the labor market and to develop the country’s economy, and to strengthen university-industry relations.
Business ideas are developed as course projects by students who work in teams, and it is part of the syllabus of the course “Introduction to Business”. Then the best ideas compete among themselves in front of a panel coming from the business industry. The development of business ideas by student teams and their conversion into business plans became possible through the support of two professors, Prof. Dr. Ermira Qosja and Ph.D. (c) Ina Keçi. The novelty of this year’s ideas were ecological ventures and those of a healthy lifestyle.
This project started years ago with the good will and intention of promoting entrepreneurship within UET, promoting students, and leading them to the labor market. This approach doesn’t remain in the desire of a lecturer, but it is part of the entrepreneurial education at UET, also part of the relationships established with the business world, of internal capacity building through European projects and especially the KNOWHUB project.
The panel evaluated a winning idea a green economy idea, the business plan titled “Win Cycle” by students Joana Hoxha and Nensi Janina who, in the frame of the university internationalizing, won an Erasmus scholarship – a semester of studies at a partner European University. The second winning idea was the business plan titled “HEPO” by students Orialda Toli, Flori Gjonaj, Essio Guni and Marko Palokaj, who received a monetary reward from the company “Orion Construction” to advance their idea. Students of the business idea “K.E.S. A” designed by Altea Veria, Enida Qalliu, Zinete Xhafaj and Serxhio Coku were the winners of an internship given by the company Startup Digital.