Developing tech skills. Image by Tim Sandle<\/p>\n
Over the past decade, the Lithuanian capital Vilnius has economically shifted from cultivating individual startups to assembling something more seemingly more durable. This is in the form of a set of tightly connected innovation clusters. Here, technology, research, and industry are no longer adjacent by chance, but by design. This has created over 16 billion euros of startup value<\/a>.<\/p>\n This development was a topic introduced by Digital Journal in January 2026 (\u201cThe cluster city: Vilnius\u2019 model for innovation clusters<\/a>\u201d), where it was noted that the city is building innovation at scale without losing density or focus \u2013 aligning campuses, districts, and sectors into a single system.<\/p>\n Now attention turns to youth. As the next phase, Vilnius officials are taking charge of the future of the city\u2019s tech and startup ecosystem by cherry-picking entrepreneurs straight from schools.<\/p>\n Whether with a new prime-time national TV show, MVP (Student Unicorn Hunt), which encourages 14-19-year-olds to build real startups, or by gradually introducing entrepreneurship, data literacy, and AI skills in schools, the country has already put things in motion to create a new generation of builders \u2013 not only users.<\/p>\n To achieve these goals, the state and local businesses maintain that AI and other digital technologies need to be embedded into the classroom.<\/p>\n It is argued that entrepreneurial and AI initiatives for the younger generation, therefore, become essential for project-based learning, real-world problem-solving, collaboration, and experimentation, making education more dynamic and closer to industry reality.<\/p>\n Hence, if this plan succeeds, then entrepreneurship and AI literacy will no longer be niche skills, but a standard part of education. Furthermore, this could redefine how various countries prepare young people for the future of work.<\/p>\n