Comte d'Urgell,262 - Barcelona

       

 

 

“Being an Entrepreneur”

Innovative subject for 2nd cycle ESO

 

This year we’ve started a new project for some students from 3rd and 4th ESO:

“Be an Entrepreneur  This subject is taught 100% in English, a weekly hour, by an external teacher Paul, from a consultancy (Fundació Emprenedors (link to http://www.escolaemprenedors.org/), and another hour by Angie and Núria, from SAFA school.

It follows a simplified version of the Harvard Business school method to teach students how to create their own company with an innovative a new product or idea to be successful in business. Students work in teams in two semesters, through the year they are going to develop two different projects. We hope they work hard as they have to present their projects to their classmates, families, teachers etc…,.

 

 “Being an Entrepreneur,” the main aim of this subject is that students:

·  Learn to think creatively. Thinking creatively is a state of mind that enables you to
approach tasks, problems, and situations with openness to alternatives.

 

· Write a business plan. Include details and descriptions.

 

a.    Product description: develop the product. What will it look like? What materials will you need? Make the product eye-catching.

    1. Market Analysis: Who is your market? Where do they shop? Where are they located?
    2. Competition: Who is your competition?
    3. Marketing: How will you market your product? What kind of image do you want to display? Where will you advertise?
    4. Sales: Where will you sell? How will you get your customers to buy? When will you sell?
    5. Manufacturing: How do you make your product? Explain this in detailed steps. What materials do you need to make your product? When and where will you manufacture? What is your COGS (cost of goods sold)?
    6. Finance: how much money do you need to start your business?

·          Work in group.

1.    Forming

2.   Storming

3.   Norming

4.   Performing

·   Develop public speaking and oral communication skills.

      Oral articulation of ideas and presentation of their projects  is an important area in              which     many students need practice. Regular and frequent opportunities to speak in front of small and large groups should be provided to our  students weekly. Define and demonstrate for students such concepts as tone, inflection, pace, and articulation.

·        Improve English language in a practical environment.

One of the most effective methods of improving English skills is immersing in an English speaking environment.

Being in an English speaking environment will improve English speaking skills by helping our students to communicate more easily and effectively. If they are you constantly hearing and speaking English, they can improve how they speak and understand the language. You will learn English idioms and slang, pronunciation, and meanings of words and phrases. Our students will gain more confidence as they listen and learn. Interacting with others will also boost their confidence as they become more comfortable with speaking the language.


 So far students have started working in groups, defining their own company. At the moment right now they are enthusiastic with the idea and energy to carry on working on it.

Here you have some of our students’ opinions about these first weeks:

 		  
  Cuadro de texto: -Lorena Borrelli (3rd ESO): “Paul, from London, Angie and Nuria Font are the teachers of “Emprendedors” project. On our first day, Paul explained what we are going to do in the project and then he recorded us presenting a friend. Then we listened to the record and we laughed a lot.  I think this project is going to be fun.”   Cuadro de texto: -Josep Aguadé (4th ESO): “I think that this could be a good experience for us, because we are going to improve our English and we will get experience talking in public and working in group. Paul is very cheerful, and we enjoy his classes and his activities. It will be a good year next to him and we are going to learn a lot of things so we can expand our general knowledge. We have to work hard in this class, with 3rd ESO students who are very nice people.” Cuadro de texto: -Elena Sánchez (3rd ESO): “My first opinion of this subject was that we were going to work really hard in the projects, and I was right. When our teachers explained us what were we going to do, a lot of my partners decided to give up the subject because of the English level. But I think they shouldn’t do that, because it means that your teachers have chosen you because they think you can do it. In the next classes we’ve seen that it could be funny having our own company, and feel like a real boss or an employer.  Just because the project consists in: create our own company, support it, do the advertising, it’s quite difficult if you don’t know anything about this but in the next project we hope to do it very well. Every week, in the first hour of this subject, an external teacher called Paul is helping us with the final presentation and answering our doubts. He’s from Britain, and he is a real entrepreneur. The objectives of this project are making young people an entrepreneur and teach us how to talk in public and working in group. It’s a very important thing; it will be very useful in the future because this is a good experience to know more about a professional employee’s life. That means that we must work hard to get a good mark and a good experience.”