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Purpose: Entrepreneurship is not only seen as an important factor for economic growth and welfare but also as a vehicle of societal development and change, both at the regional, national and international level. Thus, entrepreneurship education at schools plays an increasingly important role, linking policy, businesses, education and science. However, research on entrepreneurship education programmes, especially on mini-companies which rely on an experiential learning setting, is still a young field and shared frameworks concerning entrepreneurial competences and longitudinal research designs are missing. This paper addresses to this research gap by analysing whether students who participate in a mini-company develop entrepreneurial competences. Design/methodology/approach: The study is conducted in a quasi-experimental design, building upon a validated and psychometrically sound research instrument that is based on a newly designed entrepreneurial competence framework. In total, 100 pupils from grammar schools in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, participated in the experimental and control group at both time points. Findings: The results show that students expand their entrepreneurial competences on an economic level. In comparison, they show only limited developments on the personal and team level. The findings have important implications for the further development of entrepreneurship education programmes as well as on the interaction between schools and (regional) entrepreneurs, business partners and enterprises. Originality/value: This study examines pupils' development of entrepreneurial competences in a quasi-experimental design. It highlights that participating pupils develop economic competences when participating in mini-companies in comparison to pupils participating in regular economics classes. This study sheds further light on the effects of mini-companies, and thus contributes to the discussion of entrepreneurship education at schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]