Train the Trainer Resources
Activity title: Creating a company
Short description:
Students from different vocational areas work together to design and market a
product setting up a business in the process. This activity has been used
successfully by the Magestil Professional School in Portugal to create a company
marketing a fully recyclable drinks bottle which can be collapsed and pocketed
when empty, refilled with drinkable water, stored in a refrigerator and disinfected
in a micro-wave.
Key competences in life skills:
Numeracy
Literacy and communication
ICT
Interpersonal
Use of foreign languages
Entrepreneurship
Job seeking
Learning to learn
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Situation:
Teachers from different areas such as product design and business management
develop a project with students as part of the course curriculum.
Aims and objectives:
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To
promote
relevant
entrepreneurship
competences, such as creativity, ability to take
risks and responsibilities).
To spread knowledge of the business world
To help understanding of the role of
entrepreneurs in the community
Detailed Description:
 The preparation:
The project can be developed over several months,
involving different vocational areas and student ideas
and evaluations. The project should be aimed at
realistically simulating work contexts in each training
area, backed by practical development of creative
solutions.
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Train the Trainer Resources
Requirements and Resources:
This is group work, developed within several course curricula. In Portugal, the
project was sponsored and guided by a Course Coordinator and by teachers of
technical areas within FCT (On-The-Job-Training), supported by volunteers who
led work sessions with students in the school.
Assessment:
Students are assessed by teachers and their peer group throughout the project.
Students from the Magestil Professional School have stated that ‘Group work,
cooperation and resilience were added values undoubtedly strengthened by this
project. Furthermore, we keep with us a strong team spirit and union, helping us
to override obstacles.’ The students won 1st prize in the domestic edition of “The
Enterprise,” a competition organised by Junior Achievement 2011, where 22
groups of young people from secondary and vocational schools submitted a
micro company project which had been developed over the whole year. They
also represented Portugal in ‘Junior Achievement Europe’, true entrepreneurship
(a key word to fight youth unemployment).
Hints and tips:
Encourage a creative and innovative solution to a problem. In this example,
students found that large, rigid drinks bottles were impractical. Their collapsible
bottle can be carried in a pocket rather than a bag and filled at a drinking water
source. It also saves money.
For more information, please go to http://sicnoticias.sapo.pt/vida/article634496.ece
for video of the young entrepreneurs demonstrating their product
Use in different vocational areas:
This idea can be adapted to any
vocational area and level of learning
providing students with valuable
experience in creating a company.
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