By Gabby Goetz, Makena Maddigan, and Albert Schram, Ph.D.
USAC Verona, International Business Program
Italy is a nation of entrepreneurs. Ninety-nine percent of its businesses are small and medium-sized enterprises, family firms, workshops, and start-ups that together form the backbone of the economy (European Commission, 2024). And yet most Italian students finish secondary school without ever having run a business project, managed a budget, or pitched an idea to a real professional. Italian teenagers score below the OECD average in financial literacy (OECD, 2024), and employers report, year after year, that graduates arrive with strong theory but weak practical skills. Something does not add up.
Two students in the USAC Verona International Business program, Makena Maddigan and Gabby Goetz, spent their summer studying this paradox. Their research report, Integrating Junior Achievement Successfully into the Italian School System (Maddigan & Goetz, 2026), offers a refreshingly concrete answer: do not build a new system, strengthen the one Italy already has.
A gap everyone recognizes
Readers of this blog will be familiar with the shortcomings of Italy's national work-based learning framework, so a brief reminder suffices. The Pathways for Transversal Skills and Orientation (PCTO), successor to Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro, obliges students to complete hundreds of hours in workplace settings, but the quality of those hours is notoriously uneven. Placements vary enormously by region and school type, communication between schools and employers is inconsistent, students often arrive at internships underprepared, and many placements amount to observation rather than genuine skill-building (Maddigan & Goetz, 2026). The intent of the reform was sound. Its execution has left a gap between what students are supposed to gain and what they actually do.
The consequences show up in the data. In the 2022 OECD PISA assessment of financial literacy, Italian students scored 484, below the OECD average of 498 and well behind the United States at 505 (OECD, 2024). Youth unemployment remains stubbornly high, especially in the South, at the very moment businesses report they cannot find young people with entrepreneurial and managerial skills. The knowledge is being taught. The ability to use it is not being built.
A century-old model with modern evidence
The students' report points to Junior Achievement, a nonprofit founded in the United States in 1919, as the missing piece. Junior Achievement does not lecture students about business. It has them do business. Through programs like the JA Company Program, students create and operate real student-run enterprises during the school year: developing products, conducting market research, managing finances, and presenting to investors and judges. Other programs simulate personal financial decisions, from budgeting and saving to understanding credit and recognizing fraud.
The evidence of lasting impact is compelling. An independent Ipsos study found that 76 percent of JA alumni feel confident managing their personal finances, compared with 67 percent of non-alumni, and 68 percent regularly save part of their income, compared with 59 percent of non-participants (Ipsos, 2022). In Junior Achievement's 2026 Education for What's Next survey, 91 percent of education leaders said there is a disconnect between what students learn in school and the skills the workforce demands, and 94 percent said schools should do more about it (Junior Achievement USA, 2026).
The numbers tell the story
Junior Achievement operates worldwide through national member organizations, and comparing their reach is revealing. The figures below are approximate, drawn from organizational reporting, and definitions differ across countries: JA Italia, notably, reports "educational experiences" rather than unique students, which flatters the Italian figure (JA Italia, 2025). Even so, the pattern is unmistakable.
Annual reach of Junior Achievement member organizations
| Country | JA member organization | Students reached per year (approx.) | School-age population (approx.) | Indicative reach |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Junior Achievement USA | 4,400,000 | 54 million | ~8% |
| United Kingdom | Young Enterprise | 250,000 | 11 million | ~2% |
| Ireland | Junior Achievement Ireland | 65,000 | 1 million | ~6% |
| France | Entreprendre Pour Apprendre | 100,000 | 12 million | ~1% |
| Germany | IW JUNIOR | 90,000 | 11 million | ~1% |
| Italy | JA Italia | 502,000 educational experiences* | 8 million | well below potential |
*One student may account for several "experiences"; the number of unique students reached is substantially lower. Sources: Junior Achievement USA (2025); Young Enterprise (2025); Junior Achievement Ireland (2025); Entreprendre Pour Apprendre (2025); IW JUNIOR (2025); JA Italia (2025).
Three conclusions leap out. First, no large European country comes close to the American penetration rate, so Italy is not alone. Second, Ireland proves the point within Europe: with reach approaching the American rate, it shows that deep penetration is not a peculiarity of the US system but a matter of national commitment. Third, and most importantly, the gap between Italy and the leaders shows what is achievable when a program of this kind becomes a normal, expected part of schooling rather than a fortunate exception. If Italy reached even half the American rate among its upper secondary students, hundreds of thousands of additional young people every year would graduate having actually practiced the skills employers say they cannot find. The room for growth is not marginal. It is the entire gap between a niche initiative and a national habit.
Junior Achievement is already in Italy, but unevenly
Junior Achievement has operated in Italy since 2002. Through initiatives such as Impresa in Azione, Idee in Azione, KidsVille, and Conta sul Futuro, JA Italia delivered those 502,000 educational experiences in the 2024-2025 school year with over 1,900 business volunteers and 1,200 teachers (JA Italia, 2025). Research by the Center for Young and Family Enterprise at the University of Bergamo found measurable improvements in entrepreneurial competence, digital skills, critical thinking, and career awareness among participants (CYFE, 2020).
The foundation exists. The problem is reach and consistency. Programs are concentrated in the North and Center, in Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, and Lazio, while the Southern regions that need these opportunities most, Campania, Calabria, Sicily, and Puglia, see the least of them. Participation depends on individual motivated teachers rather than national policy. Most Italian students will complete their entire schooling without ever encountering a JA program (Maddigan & Goetz, 2026).
The proposal: build on what works, in three phases
The heart of the report is a pragmatic plan (Maddigan & Goetz, 2026). Junior Achievement would be woven into subjects that business-focused technical and professional institutes already teach, economics, marketing, and entrepreneurship, and into the PCTO hours already required. Teachers gain no new burden; they gain a more engaging way to deliver existing objectives, and PCTO gains exactly the structure and quality control it has lacked.
Phase One, the first two years, launches pilots in professional institutes in regions such as Veneto, Tuscany, and Sicily, combining strong employer ecosystems with a deliberate attack on regional disparities. Success is measured concretely: participating schools and students, employer engagement, financial literacy gains. Phase Two, years three through five, extends to all business-focused technical and professional institutes, adding teacher training, regional coordinators, formalized Chamber of Commerce partnerships, and standardized assessment. Phase Three, years five through ten, pursues national integration: ministry recognition, dedicated funding, national entrepreneurship benchmarks, and presence in every region.
The report is honest about obstacles and practical about solutions. Teacher workload is managed by embedding JA in existing subjects. Volunteer recruitment leans on organizations with deep employer networks. Southern gaps are addressed through targeted investment and virtual mentorship. Funding can draw on national initiatives, EU programs, regional budgets, and private sponsorship. There is also an inclusion dividend: JA's hands-on, team-based approach fits naturally with Italy's individualized education plans and intercultural mediation, giving students with disabilities and migrant students concrete pathways to economic participation.
What heads of school can do now
School leaders do not need to wait for a national framework. Any dirigente scolastico of a business-focused institute can begin this school year:
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Contact JA Italia directly through jaitalia.org and request information on Impresa in Azione and programs suited to your institute's specializations.
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Map JA programs onto your existing curriculum. Identify where JA activities align with objectives in economics, marketing, administration, and PCTO hours, so participation replaces nothing and reinforces everything.
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Identify two or three motivated teachers as internal champions and enroll them in JA teacher orientation before annual planning closes.
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Approach your local Chamber of Commerce and employer associations to recruit mentors, asking for professionals willing to commit a small, defined number of hours per term.
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Start with one pilot class, ideally a third or fourth year group, and run a full student-company cycle from idea to final presentation.
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Measure from the start: participation, student and employer feedback, and simple before-and-after checks on financial literacy and transversal skills.
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Share the results with your regional school office, neighboring institutes, and local press. Visible evidence turns one pilot into a regional movement.
A call to action for Confindustria and the Camere di Commercio
Schools can adopt programs and teachers can champion them, but experiential business education without businesses is a contradiction in terms. Students need mentors who have actually met a payroll, priced a product, and lost and won customers.
To Confindustria, at national and territorial level: your member companies say they cannot find young people with entrepreneurial and managerial skills. Here is the mechanism to build them, proven abroad and already producing measurable results in Italy. Encourage your associates, especially SMEs, to adopt a class, contribute volunteer mentors, and open their doors for job shadowing. A few hours per month from a handful of professionals in each territory would transform the reach of these programs.
To the Camere di Commercio: you sit exactly where this initiative must be coordinated. You hold the employer networks, the local credibility, and the convening power to match schools with businesses at scale. Formalize partnerships with JA Italia and the technical and professional institutes in your provinces. Fund regional coordinators. Host the year-end student enterprise competitions that give young people a stage and your members a first look at the next generation of talent.
Two students looked at Italy from the outside and saw what those inside sometimes miss: an economy built on entrepreneurship, schools full of capable young people, and a missing bridge between the two. The table above shows how far that bridge could carry us. Ireland has already crossed it. What Italy needs now is partners willing to build it.
References
Center for Young and Family Enterprise (CYFE). (2020). Monitoring and evaluation of the Impresa in Azione program. Università degli Studi di Bergamo.
Entreprendre Pour Apprendre. (2025). Rapport d'activité 2024–2025. https://www.entreprendre-pour-apprendre.fr
European Commission. (2024). SME country fact sheet: Italy. Publications Office of the European Union. https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu
Ipsos. (2022). Junior Achievement alumni impact study. Junior Achievement USA. https://jausa.ja.org
IW JUNIOR. (2025). Jahresbericht 2024–2025. Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft. https://www.iwjunior.de
JA Italia. (2025). Rapporto annuale 2024–2025. https://www.jaitalia.org
Junior Achievement Ireland. (2025). Annual report 2024–2025. https://www.jai.ie
Junior Achievement USA. (2025). Annual report 2024–2025. https://jausa.ja.org
Junior Achievement USA. (2026). Education for what's next: National survey of education leaders. https://jausa.ja.org
Maddigan, M., & Goetz, G. (2026). Integrating Junior Achievement successfully into the Italian school system [Unpublished research report]. USAC Verona, International Business Program.
OECD. (2024). PISA 2022 results (Volume IV): How financially smart are students? OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/5a849c2a-en
Young Enterprise. (2025). Impact report 2024–2025. https://www.young-enterprise.org.uk
