Gain Creators / Outcomes

• Participants understand better how the society around them works
• Participants practice performing, brainstorming and teamwork
• Participants learn to acknowledge their strengths and skills
• Program is based on learning-by-doing approach
• Activities fit well the curriculum in EE
• Program’s content is problem-based, student-centered and fun for the pupils
• Different topics will give the pupils an opportunity to experience entrepreneurship during primary school
• Program is time wise flexible and can be arranged during school time or after school

Gains / Needs

Educators need:

• Practical learning-by-doing approaches in the classroom
• Easy-to-implement activities that fit well within the curriculum
• Content that is relevant and challenging for students aged 10-12
• Activities that will expose young people to real-world situations and get them thinking constructively about the future
• Time flexibility to deliver another course

Target Group

Educators (for students aged 10-12)

Implementation Method

Distribution

• Teachers or business volunteers contact the JA office and register themselves for the program
• Program’s educational kit will be delivered to the participating school

Implementation

• The program can be implemented as a part of school subject or as an after school club
• JA provides training and support for people running the club

Mini-mini Companies

Mini-mini Companies (Pikkuyrittäjät as it is called in Finland, where the programme originated) is program which offers teachers learning by doing and entrepreneurship activities for students aged 10-12.  Mini-mini Companies is a nine-week program and during the nine weeks pupils will create their own business idea, own logo, slogan and website and also practice their pitch.

Pupils get an overview how businesses work, what skills are important in working life and maybe even consider being entrepreneurs in the future. In the club children explore their strengths, get familiar with entrepreneurial mind-set and try this in action. In the program pupils set up their own mini company with group of 2 to 4 members. They do a logo, website, pricing and marketing. In the club children practise important skills of performing and get familiar with sales and customer service.

Activities

Program consists of nine meetings (each meeting is around 1,5 hours) and the topics are following:

1. Brainstorming and forming teams
2. Planning the business idea and name for the company
3. Planning the logo and graphics of the company
4. Practicing company’s pitch and create a slogan
5. Pricing and advertising
6. Creating a website for the company
7. Final touches before the sales event
8. Sales event: in the sales event companies will sell their products and services to people
9. Final event: Doing final reports (how much money did we make)

Resources

Material and training:

• In the program there are guides for pupils and teachers / volunteers how run the program
• Training for teachers and volunteers

Manpower: Someone to run the club (teacher or volunteer)

Pain Relievers / Solutions

• Program has easy to use materials for teachers and activities are hands-on and focuses on pupils skills
• It is fairly easy to get business volunteer to comment and bring perspective to the ideas
• During the club pupils learn that they can influence in their own future. They also figure out, learning by doing, that they can achieve anything with an entrepreneurial mind-set.

Pains / Challenges

• Teachers aren’t familiar how EE can be implemented in primary education and lack training in the field of EE
• The pupils don’t understand how they can influence their own future and for this reason they don’t see the importance of their actions