Introduction

The first Junior Enterprise (JE) emerged in France in the mids of the 20th century aiming to motivate business practices as a complementary instrument in teaching (Moretto Neto et al., 2004; Silva, 2014). This innovative perspective presents management laboratory initiation, which would represent an introduction to professional life while still in educational process.

In Brazil, this model gained legal support with the enactment of the Law no. 13,267 (stablished on April 6, 2016), that defines a JE is a non-profit civil association, exclusively in Higher Education Institution (HEI) environment, where its members are students regularly enrolled in undergraduate courses, where they are volunteers, and all income acquired by JE is reinvested in itself towards equipment, structures and innovation acquisition, providing conditions for students develop their activities in this new laboratory concept (Brasil, 2016).

Aspects involved in JE creation are multiple and relatively complex (Vaz et al, 2015). In view of this, a few concerns gave rise to these questions: Does academic community have knowledge about what a Junior Enterprise is? How would a new JE be received by faculty, students and academic community?

This debate gains even more relevance when one observes the evolution of the field of tourism, which, in the last decades of the twentieth century, boosted the formation of new fields of knowledge, such as entertainment, environment and services in general, in addition to integrating with other areas of knowledge. More than transdisciplinary, tourism has become a field of intersection of knowledge and procedures among various sciences (Ansarah, 2000).

Faced with this scenario, the purpose of this work is to analyze a Junior Enterprise creation within Technology Course in Tourism Management at UFPR, located in Paraná coastal region. The study initially seeks to explore the benefits that student members would have with entrepreneurial practice, where they have autonomy when taking on Junior Enterprise management. It is based on the assumption that this experience directly contributes to professional growth and leadership identity together with entrepreneurial vision (Silva et al., 2018).

To this end, this work consists of an exploratory study with a qualitative approach, characterized by Action Research design, once initial proposal foresaw JE establishment during project development. Bibliographical research and JE good practices we also applied. In addition, interviews, interest group meetings, and documentary analysis were conducted based on the investigation of institutional documents and legislation.

Regarding the planning of its strategy and organizational structure, management functions, products and services offered by junior enterprise were defined. In addition, to understand the process of implementing a JE, a logo and internal statute were designed. Results contribute to new strategies, practices, and teaching experiences. Furthermore, this research deepens discussion on the effects of implementing JEs in higher education courses.

Junior enterprise, university & entrepreneurship

Matos (1997) defines Junior Enterprises (JEs) as an instrument of university extension because they broadly fulfill the two basic missions of this activity: (i) to serve as an agile vehicle of communication with society by transmitting basic knowledge, and (ii) as a channel for transferring extracurricular knowledge to university students, based on project development or participation in their structure and management.

In these terms, the role of universities is reinforced, as institutions supported by “teaching, research and extension”, which have been strengthening their ways of improving student education (Brasil Junior, 2014). Thus, JEs assume the role of facilitators in gaining professional experiences throughout the university education process before internship and graduation (Silva & Andrade, 2013; Campos et al., 2014).

Another issue is related to university reliability, lent as quality seal together with another service: using specialist professors as advisors. In this way, students have autonomy in JE management, but its entire structure and organization must be registered in JE “Internal Statute”, which is approved by General Assembly.

Based on concepts from the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae), we cannot talk about junior enterprises without talking about entrepreneurship, which is the ability of a person to identify problems and opportunities, develop solutions, invest in human, intellectual and financial resources creating something positive for society (Sebrae, 2024). Enterprise can be represented by business, project or even movement generating engagement, real changes and significant transformations in society.

Entrepreneurs are innovation agents who improve people's quality of life, who drive economic growth and who contribute to social transformation (Sebrae, 2024). In simple terms, we can say that entrepreneurship also means knowing how to identify opportunities and transform them into business (Dornelas, 2018). This can happen, for instance, from a simple solution or one created to meet a consumer need, which can be service or product, based on specific knowledge or skill.

For Schumpeter, the entrepreneur is responsible for creating new combinations. Thus, entrepreneurship also involves the ability to manage resources, make strategic decisions and adapt to market changes (Fuzeti, 2010). In addition, it is a dynamic process that requires dedication, perseverance and be constantly learn from challenges. Concluding this definition, Chiavenato (2007) argues that the entrepreneur is someone who can make things happen, as he or she is endowed with business sensitivity, financial acumen and the ability to identify opportunities.

Junior Enterprise: from Business legal structure to Total Quality Management

Junior Enterprise is a civil association with CNPJ (National Registry of Legal Entities), established and managed by students regularly enrolled in Higher Education Institution. Its members are volunteers, since JE is non-profit, however its revenue is invested in its members training (Marques & Didier, 2012). Thus, in addition to acquiring material assets to improve performance, services and/or products, another characteristic of JE is that it can provide quality service at low cost, forming a partnership of increasing trust (Pamplona Filho & Gagliano, 2021).

Junior Enterprises belong to economy third sector, as they are in private sector and do not have profit as their ultimate goal. Also, JE end up having reduced operating and tax costs, being able to offer quality services at a low cost (Cunha, 2011). Founding a Junior Enterprise is compared to the foundation of a house: it needs to be planned, starting from forming a committed students team to define goals, guidelines, principles, vision and objectives according to Higher Education Institution guidelines.

Structuring this requires dedication and time, as they need to know subjects from other subjects such as creating an “internal statute” with notions of Law and Administration, due to bureaucratic nature complexity in opening a Junior Enterprise. In addition, Quality Management began to be used in JE to enhance processes (Coltro, 1996), as a way of preventing failures in products or services.

Quality tools implementation in a Tourism JE forces its members to look at the market in which they operate with an entrepreneurial vision towards a innovation continuous process. Total Quality Management (TQM) does not have a normative model, but it aims to guide a company's management to better adapt contributing to service qualification (Bernardo et al., 2018).

This study lies on Total Quality Management – ​​TQM (Carvalho & Paladini, 2005; Pedrotti, 2012) characteristics in Junior Enterprises such as: (i) all organization members commited to enhance processes; (ii) decision-making based on facts and data; (iii) continuous improvement to solve problems, mitigate risks and reduce errors. The importance of Quality Management as junior company asset is its guidelines, principles and objectives to be achieved in short and long term.

Junior Enterprise: from Administration to Tourism Management

Junior Enterprise movement originated in France in 1967, where students realized the need to complement their theoretical knowledge through practical application. The objective of this initiative was to experience a business while being in academia, supervised by professors (Moretto Neto et al., 2004; Santos & Pereira; 2014).

In 1989, the first Junior Enterprise in Brazil was founded at Getúlio Vargas Foundation School of Business Administration (FGV). The following year, in 1990, Federation of São Paulo State Junior Enterprises (FEJESP) was founded by seven junior enterprises with representing federated junior enterprises, keeping faithful and consistent, ensuring the unity of this movement (FEJESP, 2024).

Created in 2010, Junior Enterprise Movement (MEJ, 2024) has been mapping junior enterprises nationwide and has already impacted Brazilian economy by more than R$70,000,000.00 (seventy million reais, Brazilian currency), which is fully reinvested in entrepreneurial education and reported annually on the website https://brasiljunior.org.br .

First Tourism Junior Enterprise (TJE) in Brazil, Labotur, was created in 1994 by Federal University of Maranhão (UFMA, 2014). This JE still active and develops its work in extension, research, agency, data collection (tourism inventory) and event organization.

In Brazil, JEs began as a pedagogical instrument so that students, while still in academia, had a laboratory to experience the profession they will have when they graduate. Junior Enterprise Movement (MJE) grew and became organized, forming a structure composed of federations and Brazilian confederation, whose main objective is to develop and integrate all junior enterprises, whether within universities or at a national level, in addition to developing the MJE as a “Business Education Agent and Generator of New Businesses” (Brasil Júnior, 2014).

Therefore, today, JE consulting market is booming and expanding. JEs have grown significantly in Brazil, a fact proven by the increasingly number of young entrepreneurs in the country (around 12%) over the last eight years. It is estimated that there are more than 20,000 young JE members working as volunteers (Bartz, 2010; Silva et al., 2014).

In legal terms, JEs were only regulated in Brazil on April 6, 2016, with the enactment of Law No. 13,267, regulating JE creation and organization, with exclusive operation in HEI. This law also defends principles, organizational chart and legal structure as JEs in other countries, as well as it presents legal obligations for JEs, such as Civil Registry Local Office registration, Statute elaboration and Basic Entry Document (DBE), a form available by Federal Revenue Service updating company registration data in Brazil (Brazil, 2018).

Junior Enterprise as pedagogical strategy

A junior enterprise can offer, through projects and consulting, quality services at low cost, in addition to experiencing and improving company's relationship with customers, suppliers and relationship between team members. Through JE experience, the student gains a more realistic view of entrepreneurship, making them stand out from other administrators who have not had this opportunity (Oliveira & Ribeiro, 2014). In addition, higher education institution (HEI) strengthens company-school bond, which generates visibility in society and can be used as a positive publicity strategy.

Therefore, another important issue is what service or products Junior Enterprise will provide: members need to have at least some knowledge of strategic planning. Thus, SWOT analysis is one tool that can assist analyzing JE’s external (identifying opportunities and threats) and internal environment (strengths and weaknesses). Once SWOT analysis is defined, JE will be able to identify its critical success factors (Dantas, 2010, p. 23). JEs, as organizations, are connected within Higher Education Institution through Junior Enterprise Center (JEC), uniting, integrating, disseminating and strengthening this entire structure, demonstrating the credibility and benefits of this pedagogical instrument.

According to economist Joseph Schumpeter, who coined the term ‘creative destruction’ to explain the transformation process that occurs when entrepreneurs create new products or forms of production, he sees entrepreneurship associated with innovation process (Fuzeti, 2010). Studying JEs in general, their organizational structure shows an opportunity to be a pedagogical laboratory for students to practice entrepreneurship. Throughout the history of JEs there has been a movement towards consolidation with entrepreneurial and innovative vision, which gives its members, when they graduate, an experience of “junior senior” curriculum, who are recently graduated professionals, but with quality professional experience.

Methodology

This work consists of an exploratory-descriptive study by qualitative nature (Gil, 1987; Zikmund, 2006; Marconi & Lakatos, 2017; Sena Júnior et al., 2021) in an Action Research process throughout educational praxis (Longarezi & Silva, 2012; Miranda, 2012), since JE initial proposal and during its development.

According to Denzin and Lincoln (2006), qualitative research involves an interpretative approach, which means trying to understand the phenomena in terms of meanings that people give to them. Our choice of Action Research (Thiollent, 1986) refers to the type of empirically-based social research that is conceived and carried out in close association with collective action (junior enterprise creation) and in which researchers and participants represent the situation or problem involved in a cooperative manner. Furthermore, in Action Research, it is essential to plan a “starting and ending point”, knowing that during the research process, there may be a multiplicity of circumstances which will trigger adjustments in order to achieve the research intentionaly (Camargo et al., 2021, p.146).

Henceforth, data collection (Olsen, 2015) required bibliographic and documentary research (procedures from other JE and legislation), as well as interest group meetings with students and other stakeholders were also held from July 2022 to July 2024.

Comparative Study: Junior Enterprises Best Practices

Currently, almost all Federal Universities in Brazil have junior enterprises, and some areas have more than one JE. In this context, we find JE in courses such as business administration, engineering, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, agronomy and others. The most cited Tourism Junior Enterprises (TJE) in Brazil were researched on the Google platform, with its results shown in Table 1 as follows:

Based on the analysis of 16 Tourism Junior Enterprises, three representatives were chosen to conduct benchmarking for the creation of a new JE: Labotur (UFMA), Completur Jr (UFOP) and Trilhas (UFPR).

Labotur, the first junior tourism enterprise (TJE) in Brazil, Founded in 1994. Its structure as an internship laboratory allows practical experience integrated with teaching, research and extension, favoring applied and interdisciplinary learning. The second TJE, Completur Júnior, was founded in 2003 at Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP, 2025), works in Events Planning and Consulting, it stands out for its wide diversity of services and solid governance structure and corporate organization, serving as a strategic management model. Meanwhile, Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) has JE Trilhas, the second TJE in Brazil and the first in the south region, working in planning, itinerary development and tourism social projects (Trilhas Empresa Junior, 2025).

The choice of these three Junior Enterprises allowed us to observe distinct and complementary models of action, based on the diversity in the services provided and the governance structures adopted. This diversity contributes significantly to the formulation of a robust proposal for the creation of a new ECJ in the area of Tourism. The good practices identified were used as a benchmarking reference, based on the principles of Total Quality Management – TQM (Carvalho & Paladini, 2005; Pedrotti, 2012), especially with regard to the definition of the legal structure, the commitment of all members to the continuous improvement of processes and decision-making based on data and evidence, stimulating innovation in services and strategic insertion in the market.

LiTurânea Junior Enterprise creation

Action research development creating a new TJE had the collaboration a few specialists in JE implementation (i.e. Trilhas, the first TJE in Brazil). In addition, it had the collaboration of other stakeholders, professionals with recognized knowledge in the areas of business, environmental management, economics, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Throughout this process, it was necessary: participating in events, attending meetings, exchanging messages, being part of debates, attending videoconferences and courses. Those actions workt towards to broaden the understanding of how TJEs work. In this sense, the relationship and exchange of information with TJEs Trilhas, Labotur and Completur Júnior (Figure 1) were relevant.

Thus, aiming to learn more about this Junior Enterprise Movement (JEM) by conducting a participant observation at the “Ressonância Curitiba-Júnior” event - held on May 20 and 21, 2023 - an event that brought together TJEs from Paraná state, awarding outstanding JEs, promoting motivational lectures and supplying strategies for improving management. This organization is carried out by Brasil Júnior, which also represents all Brazilian JEs abroad.

Along these lines, in-person contact was made with JE Trilhas members, and contact by telephone and video call with members of JE Labotur and JE Completur Júnior. These conversations were held from March to December 2023, confirming the experience and motivation of its members in tourism. Hence, a set of meetings with UFPR-Matinhos tourism students interest groups was held. Interview with tourism entrepreneurs reported their initial difficulties in undertaking, regarding their lack of practice in building their own businesses, as consequence, they took several risks.

During this research process, there was a group of students who proposed to being part of this TJE project at UFPR/coast in Matinhos-PR. These students where in charge, creating a logo (Figure 2), inspired by its geographic location, as well as they supported internal regulations/statute elaboration.

An important part of LiTurânea logo is the map of Paraná, highlighting TJE region, based on Paraná coast appreciation: their many colors indicate a specific segment of tourism, since tourism is widespread. For instance, yellow on the map highlights the municipality of Matinhos and its font illuminating “TUR” within the word tourism symbolizes ‘light and joy’. The shades of green symbolize nature with the goal of rescuing and enhancing our Great Atlantic Forest Reserve.

In addition, a Guidance Booklet was created for TJE legal creation is summarized in a step-by-step guide (Figure 3).

In Step 1, regulations that govern EJ in Brazil, which aims to familiarize yourself with Law n⁰ 13,267 (April 6, 2016), since it legally supports EJ as a Civil Association, administered by students regularly enrolled in Higher Education Institution (UFPR-Litoral/Matinhos-PR). This allows us to understand principles, organizational chart, legal structure and legal obligations (Brasil, 2018).

According to this law, the purpose of Junior Enterprise is to prepare and carry out projects and services that contribute to academic and professional learning process of its members, training and forming a professional identity while still in academia for job market. Some items deserve to be highlighted in this section, such as: Internal regulations; Civil Association; Regularly enrolled Higher Education Students; Service Provision; Volunteer Work; Teacher Advisor.

In Step 2, the process of drafting Internal Statute begins. According to Law n⁰ 13,267, Junior Enterprise must be registered as Civil Association and have its own regulation, defining Junior Enterprise as a non-profit company and its competencies. It must make it clear in its prerogatives that the company's assets are under the care and responsibility of its members. EJ members will have autonomy to manage and make decisions, but always under the supervision of their teacher advisors. Internal Statute must state the segment in which JE will operate, and this must be linked to the course of its origin, and must also be linked to the course's curriculum. In this topic, three main points are highlighted: (i) Students must be regularly enrolled and voluntary; (ii) EJ work period of 1 to 2 years maximum; (iii) Supervising teacher must be invited by EJ members for management period of 1 to 2 years.

Step 3 is characterized by the holding of Foundation General Assembly, Election and Inauguration of EJ first board of directors. In order to hold the general assembly, interested parties must: a) Organize, prepare and publicize the holding of this general assembly within HEI; b) Present EJ proposal, expose its methodological and educational benefits, as well as its entrepreneurial and administrative opportunity for the first steps of professional identity to stakeholders and entire academic community; c) Constitute the Board of Directors from those who are willing to be part of this challenging and remarkable moment in HEI and the courses which are linked to this project; d) At the end of this General Assembly, all board members must be indicated; a first Minute must be written and signed by EJ secretary and president, and also by a lawyer (the lawyer does not need to be present, but must have OAB registered signature); e) After signing the Minute, a list of founding members must be recorded. This list must include the following information: name, CPF number, HEI affiliation, and, if they are students, their registration number.

In Step 4, after General Assembly: a) Draft and approve Internal Statute; b) Once the Board of Directors has been approved and the Internal Statute have been drafted, documents with board members presentation and supervising professors must be submitted. After this, they will schedule a meeting with EJ Board of Directors to schedule the creation of the EJ approval.

In Step 5, when EJ creation and Internal Statute have been approved by HEI, EJ team must take the following documents to Local Legal Entity Registry Office to formally register Civil Association: a) Registration Request Form is a formal document addressed to the head of registry office to analyze documents; b) General Assembly Minute (founding, election and Board of Directors inauguration); c) Internal Statute; d) List of elected Directors, their role and full qualification (name, marital status, place of birth, address, telephone number, identity document and CPF); e) List of founding members, this document contains the list of all individuals who participated in the First General Assembly.

In Step 6, after Board of Directors approval and registration at a notary's office, EJ must take the following documents to NEJ (i.e. Curitiba Junior Enterprise Center): a) Internal Statute registered at a notary's office; b) Minute of founding, election and inauguration registered at a notary's office; c) EJ Certificate of approval by HEI Board of Directors; d) Official letter from HEI academic chamber indicating the professor responsible for supervising EJ and the term of office.

In Step 7, once NEJ registration has been completed, JE can begin operating and must provide the following records: a) Register with Municipality to obtain a CNPJ: b) Obtain the National Concept of Junior Enterprise (CNEJ), which is issued by Brasil Júnior.

Results & Discussions

In general, this research shows that the process of creating a JE is not something new, since junior enterprises movement (MJE) has been consolidated in Brazil as a relevant pedagogical instrument in building students’ professional identity during their academic training. This information is presented as positive, since there is an influence on HEI or campuses where JE has not yet been implemented. In the next sections, details on legal analysis, tourism portfolio and implementation process in HEI will be presented.

Junior Entreprises arrived in Brazil with the same purpose, to be used as a pedagogical instrument where volunteer students could see JE as a laboratory to put their theoretical knowledge into practice. In the legal field, they would continue to be non-profit associations and only under Law no 13,267, the creation and organization of associations called Junior Enterprises were formalized, operating at higher education institutions (Brasil, 2016; Marques & Didier, 2012).

In general, an association has the objective of achieving a purpose, which is not economic. In the case of JE, the purpose is educational. Associations are private law entities, formed by union members with the purpose of achieving non-profit purposes (Marques & Didier, 2012; Cunha, 2011). Furthermore, it is considered that “peculiar feature of civil associations, therefore, is precisely their non-economic purpose, which can be educational, recreational, professional, religious, etc.” (Pamplona Filho & Gagliano, 2011, p. 248).

However, according to this legal principle and National Concept of Junior Companies (CNJE), ‘Junior Enterprise’ association is independent in its administrative and financial management, team formation, creation of its statute, etc., making it clear that it does not receive financial resources from university for its maintenance. Therefore it has to provide products and/or services generating financial resources for the maintenance and improvement of its educational activities.

Consequently, because it does not pursue a profit-making purpose, association is not prevented from generating income to maintain its activities and pay its staff. On the contrary, what should be noted is that, in an association, its members do not intend to share profits or dividends, as occurs among partners in civil and commercial companies. EJ revenue must be used to benefit the association itself, aiming to improve its activity (Pamplona Filho & Gagliano, 2011, p.249).

Considering the above-mentioned instructions, during this work development, an Internal Statute was drawn up aiming to set hierarchical and administrative TJE functioning, composed of: (i) Administrative Organization; (ii) Presidential Board; (iii) Administrative-Financial, Human Resources and Quality Board; (iv) Projects and Events Board; (v) Marketing and Advertising Board; (vi) TJE LITURÂNEA Objectives and Proposal and, (vii) Supervisor Professor role. To better elucidate this entire process, a booklet was also deployed providing step-by-step guidance on JE creation.

Junior Enterprises Best Practice to Tourism Portfolio Mapping

For Drejer (2000), learning is the process that enables skills acquisition and improvement. Competence is a complex and multifaceted profile and can be interpreted according to different theoretical perspectives and levels of analysis (Brandão, 2006). Despite the diversity of definitions, there is a consensus that the identification of relevant individual skills serves as a parameter to guide professional development and collaborates in the achievement of organizational objectives (Ruas et al., 2005). Individual skills and organizational strategies are connected since skills add economic value to the organization to the extent that they express social recognition of its ability to express its talents (Fleury; Fleury, 2001).

Thus, based on this premise, a tourism JE at UFPR, coastal sector, could significantly contribute to the learning process of its members, as it would have the opportunity to work on its skills, improving its talents, seeking knowledge to practice project planning, meeting deadlines that JE undertakes to provide.

In this sense, it is appropriate to mention the provision of some consulting services such as: tourist itineraries; services in ​​events and ceremonies; data collection (tourist inventory) etc., found in some JEs projects consulted (Table 1). It is an opportunity for students to mature professionally with autonomy while still in academia, as this experience contributes leadership, teamwork, giving the student confidence.

For Zarifian (2001), major transformations in labor market by globalization demand more diverse skills that can work in increasingly complex and unpredictable situations. UFPR/coastal sector, where technological course in Tourism Management is offered, has a privileged geographical location. It is also a tourist region that still needs a lot of intervention in relation to professional workforce in the most diverse segments that encompass tourism.

In addition, it must be considered that tourism development must be based on sustainability criteria, preserving ecosystem in the long term becomes economically viable and is equitable from an ethical and social point of view for local communities (Dias, 2003, p.79).

Considering its favorable geographic location and environmental factors, tourism in Paraná coastal, under multidisciplinary influence, contributes to the economy of local communities, these are sufficient indicators for JE in educational tourism (Takatsuki, 2016), as it understands that we need to work on awareness and responsibility for environmental sustainability. In this sense, it is worth mentioning that in Pontal do Paraná we have the only Marine Museum in the state created by a UFPR-CEM professor.

Another possible favorable tourist spot for JE to work is Ilha dos Currais National Marine Park, which is in front of Pontal do Paraná. This location has the potential to organize projects in partnership with MARIS, the Oceanography JE at UFPR-CEM. In this way, together these two JEs could develop sustainable tourism activities together.

The Saint-Hilaire Lange Park is another possible location for JE to work in tourism, as it could work on projects to support ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Conservation and Biodiversity) in Matinhos-PR by preparing and signaling trails, considering that we have students from environmental management course who could be part of JE LiTurânea team and there are already inter-institutional approximations via university extension through the Caiçara Cycletourism Route, called a web of solutions with the support of the Regional Development Bank of the Extreme South and the Boticário Foundation.

Henceforth, it is worth remembering the Art course, which could contribute to JE LiTurânea for art practices in events as UFPR-coastal/Matinhos-PR has physical space for small events, such as Juliano Weiss auditorium and the spot between blocks on this campus, in summary (Table 2):

Finally, as Rapchan et al (2017) suggests, the innovation process has become increasingly characterized by activities in cooperation networks, leading to the involvement and interactive participation of multiple actors, such as governments, companies, universities and users. In this case, Junior Enterprises arises as key actors in this regional development performance.

Final Considerations

This study aimed to evaluate Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) potential, especially UFPR Litoral Tourism Management for Junior Enterprise implementation, considering both pedagogical and territorial contexts. The investigation stage included extensive documentary review and secondary data collection, consulted between August 2022 and July 2024, on the origin, expansion, objectives and regulation of Junior Enterprises in Brazil, especially after the enactment of Law No. 13,267/2016, which recognizes and formalizes EJs as non-profit civil associations operating in HEIs. To make the research activities viable, NEPTUR (Tourism Extension and Research Center) room was made available for use one morning per week. NEPTUR is a technical-scientific project, which aims to develop studies focused on tourism development in Paraná Coast, by extension such as Extension Curricular Activities (ACE). Thus, starting from scientific initiation, student will develop his/her creative production, through collection, analysis and interpretation of data on tourism related to Tourism Management and also on its relationship with community.

Following the investigation stages, there was in-person contact with JE Trilhas-UFPR/Curitiba-PR members interview. On this occasion, it was observed that throughout its history, there has been a conquest of physical space within UFPR and work improvement. The opportunity for students to learn in practice what it means to be a manager with an entrepreneurial vision was identified. Another relevant report was the fact that students feel confident with supervising professor support. From contact by WhatsApp message and video call with JE Labotur (between March 2023 and June 2024) and with Completur Jr. (between February 2023 and March 2024) members, it was stated how their experience meant to them supporting their careers.

At this stage, support comes from professors with experience in Tourism, Management and Entrepreneurship. It should be noted that students were barely motivated to develop JE LiTurânea proposal, claiming that it was a more bureaucratic part and using voluntary work (without a scholarship) as an excuse. Regarding the executive board of UFPR Litoral, in 2023, JE LiTurânea importance was recognized and it was offered room in the sports court project, since entrepreneurship students had already shown interest in creating a junior enterprise in the past.

The coastal region of Paraná is also a strategic component in this study, since UFPR-litoral is located between the Atlantic Forest, Ilha dos Currais National Marine Park, Saint-Hilaire Lange Park, and Marine Museum, which favors tourism, ecotourism, Community-Based Tourism (CBT) and local gastronomy events, making it possible to work responsibility and sustainability.

Despite the potential, it is necessary to critically reflect on "Entrepreneurship and Innovation" in the curriculum of the Tourism Management course at UFPR Litoral. The formative emphasis, despite existing, proved to be limited to practical activities aimed at the creation and management of tourism businesses. Thus, there is a need to expand the presence of entrepreneurship in the curriculum, not only as content, but as a transformative formative experience, capable of boosting autonomy and strengthening the qualified professional insertion of students.

In this sense, EJ can consolidate itself as an innovative and inclusive pedagogical space, in which theoretical knowledge translates into practical actions with real impact, strengthening entrepreneurial skills and insertion in collaborative networks. The benefits of this experience were evidenced in the interviews and contacts made with other EJs in Brazil, such as Trilhas Jr. (UFPR/Curitiba), Labotur and Completur Jr., whose members reported significant gains in their training, self-confidence and professional trajectory, especially through the support of professors-supervisors and involvement in real projects, connected to the social and economic demands of the territories where they work.

Thus, it is concluded that JE LiTurânea creation, while facing structural and cultural challenges, represents a strategic opportunity to articulate education, entrepreneurship and sustainable territorial development on the coast of Paraná. Its consolidation requires institutional commitment, teacher and student engagement, as well as policies to encourage innovation and student protagonism in tune with the potential and singularities of the territory.

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Información adicional

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