Credit: Ali Sahib, Chronicle.lu
Jonk Entrepreneuren Luxembourg (JEL) is highlighting youth creativity and entrepreneurial spirit this weekend, as more than 80 student-run mini companies present and sell their products and services at Belle Étoile Shopping Center in Bertrange.
The Joint Sale of "Mini-Entreprises" (Mini Companies) began on the afternoon of Friday 27 February 2026 and is continuing in the shopping centre gallery on Saturday 28 February from 09:00 to 18:00.
For two days, the shopping centre is being transformed into a what organisers described as a veritable entrepreneurial laboratory.
Speaking to Chronicle.lu, Myriam Baustert, Programmes Manager at JEL and coordinator of the Mini-Company programme, explained: "The Mini-Company programme is a programme where students, for a whole school year, manage a small company. They themselves find an idea for their product or their service, they develop it, they produce it and then they sell it to real customers."
Myriam added that the joint sale is "first and foremost an opportunity for them to see how clients are reacting to their products and services and also for them to test how [good] they are actually at sales."
A total of 87 mini companies are participating in this sales action across the two days, with a few rotating between Friday and Saturday. In all, 23 schools and around 450 students aged sixteen to nineteen are involved.
A walk though the stands on Friday afternoon revealed a wide variety of creative and innovative ideas: high-quality dried meat products, a vegan powdered milk alternative made from beans, a "treasure box" designed to help users discover Luxembourg's regions, a compact "tiny bin with benefits", handmade candles, natural soaps, spices, granola and phone cases, among others.
Over the weekend, members of the JEL Alumni committee will visit the stands to select their favourite and present the award for the best stand. The public may also vote for their favourite mini company in the Public Choice Award.
In addition to the Mini Company event, JEL will host a My First Enterprise Joint Sale at the Golden Square in Cloche d'Or Shopping Center on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 March 2026 from 09:00 to 17:00. The My First Enterprise programme targets younger students. Visitors will again have the opportunity to shop local and discover unique products, as well as to vote for the best stand and try their luck with the Wheel of Fortune. Former participants will also present the JEL Alumni Award.
Since 2005, Jonk Entrepreneuren Luxembourg has been fostering an entrepreneurial spirit among young people aged nine to 25 through educational programmes at all levels of schooling, while strengthening the link between the academic and business worlds.
