Become a part of the broad business@school network

Every year, over 1,000 students, 150 teachers, and roughly 400 coaches participate in the educational initiative business@school. Will you soon be one of them? Here, you can find out how to get involved in business@school as a teacher, coach, or senior high school student, how to provide support as a parent, or how to become a part of our broad network as an alumnus.

 

What exactly is business@school, anyway? Find out here.

Schools and teachers

Companies and coaches

Students

Parents

b@s alumni

Schools and teachers

 You're motivated, interested in business-related topics, and open to project work?
 You'd like to give your students a hands-on, close-up look at how business works?

Apply for your school to participate in business@school!
See the personal development of your students as they create their own business ideas, work with coaches from business, and compete against teams from other schools.

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How to participate in business@school at your school:

  • Over the course of a full school year, integrate business@school in your regular instruction or make it a team project.
  • A teacher (you or another teacher) acts as project leader, coordinating between your school, project coaches, and the business@school project office. 
  • To participate, your school should have at least twelve committed students for three teams. You'd like to participate with fewer students? That's possible, too. Just get in touch with us!
  • You'll meet at least once a week with your teams—remotely or in person.
  • Business basics are explained in our materials; you do not need to have studied business. Your school's coaches, who work in business, will be happy to help you with any questions you may have.
  • You'll be supported by an extensive project intranet that provides general information, documents, and videos. An online checklist with organizational tasks will guide you through the school year.

Flexible and digital, for reliable planning - business@school can be done in person or remotely:

  • Platforms with corresponding materials, comprehensive learning materials and videos, and file storage and sharing
  • Online workshops with a diverse range of content and formats
  • School competitions and meetings with coaches held by videoconference or in person

Teachers are enthusiastic about business@school

  • It's great to see how some of the quieter students start to speak up and flourish.

  • Often, students notice only afterward how much they learned in business@school.

  • The materials on the platform are really good and extremely helpful.

  • The project office does an extraordinarily good job of guiding us through the project year. The personal contact we have is so valuable. Many thanks!

  • Working with the coaches is so much fun. It's incredibly interesting to see how they work. I've really learned a lot.

  • The online meetings with coaches work great. Sometimes we interact even more deeply and frequently than we did before.

Companies and coaches

 Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is more than just words at your company?
 Your employees enjoy meeting with young people and are able to explain complex issues in a simple and comprehensible way?

If so, then our educational initiative is just the thing for you!
As a company, you and your employees provide volunteer support over the course of a full school year at one or several locations in Germany or another country. Coaches act not as teachers, but as business experts.

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Do you have what it takes to be a business@school coach?

  • Basic business know-how
  • Willingness to commit for a full school year
  • Enthusiasm for sharing your knowledge and experience
  • Presentation skills

What do coaches do?

  • Ensure that all teams receive equal support, in coordination with teachers
  • Convey knowledge to student teams
  • Support students in brainstorming and tapping their creativity over the three phases of the project and help them to overcome hurdles as necessary
  • Share practical experience with students
  • Stay in touch with a student team over the course of a full school year—whether in person or remotely

Sounds interesting? Send an e-mail to Wanda Jakob.

 

Coaches tell about their experiences

  • It's really fun to help students learn something beyond regular classroom instruction.

  • I've been able to practice my coaching skills.

  • business@school lets me work in a new environment and gain a fresh perspective.

  • I've learned to be patient and open in dealing with people who are different than I am.

  • Volunteering as a coach helped me to network effectively at my company.

  • business@school lets me put team leadership and motivation into practice.

  • Working with the team taught me how to explain complex topics in a simple way.

  • I'm able to develop my skills as a manager by motivating and guiding diverse students without influencing their creativity.

Students

What can you expect in business@school?

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You'll become a business expert in three progressive phases.
Over the course of one school year, you'll learn to understand the basics of business, analyze annual reports, evaluate the challenges of local businesses, and conduct interviews and customer surveys. The highlight of the project comes in phase III, when you'll develop your own business idea together with your team, including a business plan.

 

Along the way, you'll acquire important skills: Many former participants tell us that business@school was a huge help to them in learning skills in areas like teamwork, presentation techniques, time management, and digital collaboration.

Throughout the entire year, you'll be supported not only by your involved teachers, but also by coaches from partner companies who give you real-life insights into business. At the end of each phase, your team presents its results to a panel of judges—and after phase III, the winning teams at each school advance to the regional competitions, whose winners then compete in the German Finals. Sound exciting? It is! We look forward to welcoming you as a participant in business@school soon.

You think business@school sounds interesting, but your school is not yet participating?
Get in touch with us—we'll be happy to send your school information about how to get involved.

What former participants say about business@school

  • The best subject of all! It's a change of pace from school as usual and you learn how to question things.

  • A great way for students to invest their time!

  • I'm really grateful for business@school. I had a lot of fun and I learned a lot. Now I love being a coach for other students.

  • business@school didn't just help me to better understand how business works, it also taught me media and social skills.

  • It's one of the best projects you can do for your personal future.

Parents

 Your child wants to participate in business@school?

That's great! Over the course of one full school year, students not only learn how business works, but also acquire important soft skills that will prepare them for life after school. Even if you as a parent don't get directly involved in business@school, you can support us in other ways.

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Help teams with your contacts

Do you have contacts at local companies? This can be a welcome form of support, especially in phase II. Or do you run your own small business? Have it analyzed by one of the participating student teams and explain to them what motivates you as an entrepreneur.

Attend school and regional competitions as a guest

Experience your child full of enthusiasm in a completely new context. You'll be amazed at how knowledgeably and persuasively your son or daughter presents his or her team's own business idea to an expert panel of judges and deftly answers critical questions. And of course, it helps to keep your fingers crossed in moral support

Your child's school is not yet participating in business@school?

Get in touch with us, and we'll be happy to send you informational material for the school.

Alumni

Meet - Connect - Support

The business@school alumni organization for all former participants. Meet at our alumni events, connect and network with other former participants, and support each other—exclusive opportunities help you do all this and more! 28,000 participants and excellent partners enable you to make the most of your previous participation in business@school.

Meet

Great locations, interesting hosts, and fascinating topics: Discuss current trends with our speakers and use our events to expand your networks.

Connect

Our network of over 28,000 alumni provides you with an excellent way to get and stay in touch with like-minded people. Connect in our alumni groups on LinkedIn and XING, and stay up to date with our newsletter, published twice a year.

Support

You're thinking about founding your own business? We can support you with our network and put you in contact with competent partners. You want to give back and share your experience with the next generation? We would be delighted to have you be a coach for business@school.