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HP and JA-YE Unveil New Award to Encourage Young Entrepreneurs to Engage in Responsible Business
HP and JA-YE Unveil New Award to Encourage Young Entrepreneurs to Engage in Responsible Business
Published 08-01-06
Submitted by Hewlett-Packard EMEA
Geneva/Interlaken Switzerland, - HP Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) and Junior Achievement-Young Enterprise (JA-YE) Europe will launch a new award to encourage young entrepreneurs to engage in responsible business.
The "HP Responsible Business Award" aims to build social and environmental responsibility and responsible business leadership skills among students across EMEA. The Award will be an extension of the existing JA-YE "Annual Company of the Year Competition" which gives students aged 14-18 the opportunity to prepare for working life through the experience of running their own company.
During the first year, HP and JA-YE will develop awareness-raising tools such as websites and mentoring, as well as online training modules to educate students about corporate social responsibility in the ten participating countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden and the UK.
In addition, HP volunteers across EMEA will be available to advise students on how to make their businesses more socially responsible and environmentally friendly.
The new annual HP Responsible Business Award will be given to student companies, that do the best job at integrating the following criteria:
Students will also have the opportunity to compete "online" with their Responsible Business ideas. The first top 10 will be awarded in 2007.
To mark the launch the first winner of the Responsible Business Award will be selected from among the contestants at the 2006 edition of the JA-YE Company of the Year Competition which is taking place in Interlaken, Switzerland from 3-6 August 2006.
"HP has a long standing commitment to global citizenship and believes that entrepreneurship and micro-business development are essential for community advancement," said Gabriele Zedlmayer, vice president of Corporate Marketing and Global Citizenship, HP EMEA. "Through our partnership with JA-YE we have the opportunity to use our knowledge and experience to encourage tomorrow's business leaders to incorporate social and environmental responsibility into company design and management."
The HP Responsible Business Award is being developed through a new partnership agreement between JA-YE and HP, intensifying existing cooperation to build environmental and social responsibility with students in EMEA.
For over a decade joint activities of HP and JA-YE have included support for enterprise education programmes and special events through cash and equipment donations, as well as the participation of HP employees as volunteers in local JA-YE programmes.
"We are grateful to HP for its commitment to educating youth around the world on the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and good business practice.", said Caroline Jenner of JA-YE Europe. "Initiatives like this award are highly relevant and send an important and positive message to young people about what modern business is all about."
About JA-YE
JA-YE Europe (www.ja-ye.org) is Europe's largest provider of enterprise education programmes, reaching 1.7 million students in 41 countries in 2005. Funded by businesses, institutions, foundations and individuals, JA-YE brings the public and private sectors together to provide young people in primary and secondary schools and early university with high-quality education programmes to teach them about enterprise, entrepreneurship, business and economics in a practical way. The JA-YE Company Programme is recognised by the European Commission Enterprise Directorate General as a 'Best Practice in Entrepreneurship Education'.
About HP
HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended April 30, 2006, HP revenue totaled $88.9 billion. More information about HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) is available at www.hp.com.
