From Campuses to Continents: Student-Run Enterprises as a Global Skills Infrastructure

Executive context

Across regions and policy domains, skills development has become a central pillar of competitiveness, social cohesion, and economic resilience. International institutions have converged on the assessment that future labour markets will require not only technical skills, but transversal competences such as problem solving, collaboration, ethical judgement, and the capacity to operate under uncertainty.

The European Union has reflected this consensus through successive initiatives, including the European Skills Agenda, the Pact for Skills, and the Digital Education Action Plan. Comparable priorities are visible in OECD, ILO, UNESCO, and World Bank policy frameworks. Despite this alignment, a persistent implementation gap remains between skills strategies and the effective development and use of skills in practice.

This article argues that student-run enterprises, and in particular the globally organised Junior Enterprise Movement, constitute an under-recognised delivery infrastructure that contributes directly to closing this gap. Operating across continents and sectors, these organisations provide a structured, scalable, and cost-efficient mechanism for translating skills objectives into applied competence.

Policy problem definition: the implementation gap

Recent policy analysis increasingly distinguishes between skills supply and skills utilisation. OECD evidence shows that skills policies are most effective when learning opportunities are directly connected to real economic and organisational contexts, rather than confined to formal instruction alone. Similar conclusions are drawn by the ILO in its work on youth employment and skills systems, which emphasises the importance of work-based learning and early exposure to responsibility.

At EU level, this challenge is acknowledged implicitly in the design of the European Skills Agenda, which stresses partnerships, relevance to labour market needs, and lifelong learning pathways. However, public education and training systems face structural constraints. Curriculum reform cycles are lengthy, institutional risk tolerance is limited, and opportunities for large-scale, real-world responsibility during studies remain unevenly distributed.

As a result, many learners acquire theoretical knowledge without sustained exposure to decision making, accountability, and organisational complexity. Employers, in turn, report difficulties in recruiting graduates who are operationally ready, despite high levels of formal qualification.

Student-run enterprises as delivery mechanisms

Student-run enterprises address this gap by combining learning and production within a single organisational framework. They are legally recognised entities managed by students, delivering services to external clients under market conditions. Students assume responsibility for governance, financial management, project delivery, quality assurance, and stakeholder relations.

This model has several policy-relevant characteristics.

First, it enables continuous applied learning. Unlike short placements or simulations, student-run enterprises operate year-round and across successive cohorts. Knowledge and practices are transferred internally, creating organisational continuity.

Second, it allows decentralised execution at scale. Thousands of local entities operate autonomously while adhering to shared principles and standards through national and international federations. From a public policy perspective, this resembles a federated delivery model with low administrative overhead.

Third, it embeds transversal competences in practice. Skills such as teamwork, leadership, negotiation, ethical decision making, and risk management are not taught abstractly but exercised in real contexts.

Taken together, these characteristics align closely with the direction of travel in international skills policy, even though student-run enterprises are rarely described explicitly as infrastructure.

Relevance to European and international policy frameworks

The European Skills Agenda identifies the need to strengthen skills partnerships and to better align learning with economic and societal needs. The Pact for Skills further operationalises this objective by promoting cooperation among education providers, businesses, and other stakeholders.

Student-run enterprises can be understood as micro-level implementations of these principles. They connect learners directly with economic actors, particularly SMEs and local organisations, and adapt rapidly to emerging skill demands, including digitalisation and sustainability.

The Council Recommendation on micro-credentials provides additional context. While student-run enterprise activity does not automatically translate into micro-credentials, the Recommendation establishes the legitimacy of short, quality-assured learning experiences outside traditional degree structures. This opens policy space for recognising applied, project-based learning when transparent standards and learning outcomes are defined.

Similarly, Erasmus+ increasingly supports cooperation partnerships, blended mobility, and innovative learning formats. Transnational student-run enterprise networks are structurally well suited to such cooperation, offering platforms for cross-border projects, peer learning, and joint problem solving.

At global level, UNESCO and the ILO emphasise that youth skills development should be embedded in broader development and employment strategies, particularly in contexts where public capacity is constrained. Student-run enterprises provide a model that mobilises existing educational institutions and student engagement, reducing dependence on continuous public funding.

Governance, trust, and institutional capacity

Beyond skills acquisition, student-run enterprises contribute to governance capacity. Participants manage budgets, comply with legal requirements, and are accountable to members, clients, and external partners. This constitutes early exposure to institutional responsibility.

This dimension is increasingly relevant in light of broader concerns about leadership renewal and institutional trust. The World Economic Forum and OECD have highlighted that economic transformation requires not only technical expertise but also governance capability and ethical judgement.

From a policy perspective, student-run enterprises offer a practical environment for developing these capacities before individuals enter formal positions of authority, complementing academic instruction and civic education.

The French institutional reference point

France provides a useful illustration of how institutional frameworks can accommodate student engagement without excessive centralisation. National legislation allows higher education institutions to recognise student engagement, including associative and entrepreneurial activity, within academic pathways.

In parallel, France has developed a robust national skills infrastructure through France compétences and the RNCP, which enhances transparency and portability of competences across education and labour markets. While student-run enterprise learning is not necessarily a formal certification, these frameworks demonstrate how competences can be described, structured, and made legible to stakeholders.

This institutional environment strengthens the credibility of France-based actors engaging in European and global policy discussions on skills and youth engagement.

Policy implications

For policymakers, the relevance of student-run enterprises lies less in creating new programmes and more in connecting existing instruments to delivery structures that already operate at scale.

Three implications follow.

First, policy engagement should focus on enabling conditions. This includes clarity on quality assurance, ethical standards, data protection, and supervision, ensuring that applied learning remains credible and trustworthy.

Second, interoperability of skills language should be strengthened. Mapping roles and learning outcomes within student-run enterprises to frameworks such as ESCO can enhance transparency without reducing learning to narrow credentials.

Third, partnerships should be designed as ecosystem linkages, not as substitutes for regulated professional services. Clear boundaries between learning, experimentation, and licensed activity are essential for institutional confidence.

Conclusion

International and European skills strategies increasingly recognise that learning must be connected to practice. Student-run enterprises represent a mature, scalable, and globally distributed mechanism for achieving this connection.

The Junior Enterprise Movement illustrates how youth-led organisations can function as a delivery layer for skills development, innovation diffusion, and governance formation. The strategic question for institutions is no longer whether such models are valuable, but how to integrate them intelligently into existing policy architectures while preserving their autonomy and strengths.

Reference framework

European Commission. European Skills Agenda for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience, COM(2020) 274 final.

European Commission. Digital Education Action Plan 2021–2027, COM(2020) 624 final.

Council of the European Union. Council Recommendation on a European approach to micro-credentials for lifelong learning and employability, 2022/C 243/02.

European Commission. A New European Innovation Agenda, COM(2022) 332 final.

European Commission. Pact for Skills – Annual Reports and implementation materials.

OECD. OECD Skills Outlook 2023: Skills for a Resilient Green and Digital Transition.

International Labour Organization. Global Employment Trends for Youth 2022 and ILO Strategy on Skills and Lifelong Learning 2022–2030.

UNESCO-UNEVOC. Global reporting on skills for work and life.

France. Décret n° 2017-962 relatif à la reconnaissance de l’engagement des étudiants.

France compétences. RNCP and national skills framework documentation.