March, April, and May are usually the months when many school competitions take place, which (one way or another) promote the development of entrepreneurial competence among young people. First, four regional Popri competitions are held in March, followed by the national competition in April. Then, during the week of April 17-21, Junior Achievement regional competitions take place. Of course, we are most interested in the ScienceJam finale, which will be held on Tuesday, April 18 at the Podbreznik Business Incubator, Novo mesto.
7 high school teams from all over Slovenia applied for the first round of ScienceJam, all of which made it to the finals. This means that the prize fund in the amount of €4,000 is fully transferred to the secondary school student teams and the first, second and third place teams receive the following financial incentives:
- The first place team gets €2,000.
- The second-placed team gets €1236.09.
- Third-placed in the pupil and student categories each receive €763.96.
Why exactly such a distribution – well, that’s still an open question for the ScienceJam finale. 😊
The two best teams at ScienceJam also qualify directly for the VILIPO Science Olympiad in Vilnius, Lithuania. This will be the first time ScienceJam sends competitors to a foreign Olympiad, but it certainly won’t be the last.
ScienceJam is financed partly from the funds of the European Union, the contact point EUROPE DIRECT Novo mesto, and partner assistance in the organization is provided by SPIRIT Slovenia: a public agency that provides the prize fund.