International Business Game WIWAG Erasmus Project

Project Title

International Business Game WIWAG

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Economic and financial affairs (incl. funding issues); Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

Context
The District Administrator Gruber School Dieburg in Germany annually conducts the computer-based business game “Wirtschaftswochen Aktiengesellschaft” (WIWAG), which is part of the curriculum of the vocational high school. During four days, students and teachers experience economic interrelationships in companies using practical examples. Over the course of several fiscal years, the participants analyze, formulate and optimize decisions and adapt them strategically. The simulation software was developed by the Ernst Schmidheiny Foundation and sponsored by the Joachim Herz Foundation in Germany.
This project International Business Game WIWAG (ISCBG) represents an international orientation of the simulation of business processes and thus contributes to the international cooperation of vocational schools in Europe.

Activities/Method
Besides a kick-off event with simulation software training and a final event with project evaluation and planning of the continuation of the cooperation) five meetings with the students are the main focus of the project. The students or trainees will come from the Department of Economics and Administration and will participate in the business game International Business Game WIWAG. The technical basis of these meetings will be concepts of corporate management and the control of operational processes with the help of simulation software. The students manage companies and make decisions which, parallel to the technical content, are designed to train language skills and social competences as well as skills in conflict and problem solving. The business management decisions concern processes relating to investment issues, marketing measures, environmental policy and product quality and personnel planning in different economic cycles in Europe. A major challenge for the students will be to hold a general meeting in which shareholders are given accountability for business development.
The plan, which is long-term at the beginning of the project, will be regularly adjusted and optimised during the implementation. The business game is implemented in repetitive processes (sprints) with different students and is an intermediate product of the project based on the project method Scrum.

Number and profile of participants
Due to personal experience, the activities will not only benefit about 150 students from the five partner countries, who will be the workers of Europe after their school careers. By using the simulation software and the accompanying materials, about 40 teachers will also gain a better understanding of complex business and economic interrelationships in Europe and get to know the WIWAG business game as a new teaching method. All participants will come from the Department of Economics and Administration. The students are expected to be between 16 and 20 years old.

Goals
The objectives include the knowledge of being able to acquire technical basics in a playful way on a European level, to make intercultural experiences and to build up and extend school cooperation. The pupils and teachers work for this purpose in intercultural, transnational working groups, which make a targeted contribution to school development on the basis of the assignments. An exchange between teachers about different teaching methods and computer-based systems of operational processes is promoted.

As a result, all documents plus a manual for the independent implementation of the business game on an international level will be published. This should provide added value for schools in Europe. Furthermore, the project partners are striving for cooperation in the area of Key Actions 1 and 2, which will continue beyond the project duration.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 181364 Eur

Project Coordinator

Landrat-Gruber-Schule Dieburg & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Hjalmar Strömerskolan
• Agrupamento de Escolas Pdr. Ant. Martins de Oliveira
• Berufsschule für Verwaltungsberufe
• FEDA MADRID