The Transition Year provides an opportunity to help pupils to develop skills and attitudes which would have a particular impact on their personal development and their orientation towards further study, adult life and work. 

Aims

• To develop an understanding of work and/or community service in terms of its structures and processes
• To promote development and appreciation of the social and other skills required in business
• To encourage a critical examination and appreciation of the steps involved in setting up a business.
• To examine potential new areas of product/service development.
• To provide skills related to starting a business such as preparation of a business plan following market research
• To experience alternative business opportunities beyond the traditional product and service industries, e.g.: online selling, online marketing, development of Apps etc.
• To develop note-taking and report-writing skills.
• To examine potential investment opportunities and sources of finance.
• To examine consumer habits and choose the best product/service promotion techniques to reach a chosen target market.
• To scaffold the experiences and learning gained in the Business Studies Junior Cycle; The Business of Living/Personal finance, Economic Framework, Business Background and Accounting
• To encourage and enable students to become more self-confident in the steps of setting up a business.

Outcomes

• Students will investigate possible business ideas in order to choose one.
• Students will develop planning, research, team, communication, leadership and management skills together with production, quality control, report writing, marketing and sales, administration and day-to-day business finance skills.
• Students will participate in local, regional and national business start-up competitions as well as in-school business start-up competitions.

Content / Scheme of Work

September/October

• Teacher registers with the programme through their local Enterprise Board.
• Class divides into business groups of no more than 5 per group.
• Class is normally visited by a Programme Co-Ordinator to brainstorm business ideas and help each group arrive at a viable idea.
• Each group starts to plan how they are going to make and sell their product or service.

October /December

• Groups start producing their product/service.
• Individuals within the group are often given responsibility for different aspects of the project, e.g. a marketing or production manager.
• Groups start to market/sell their product.
• A record of all the group activities is kept in the form of a business plan. Business Plan templates are normally available from your programme co-ordinator.

January / February

• Groups complete the sales process and finalise their business plan for the school final.
• School final is held where groups are judged on teamwork, business performance, quality of business plan and quality of display on day of final.
• School winners are selected to represent the school at the County final.

February / March

• County Enterprise Awards finals take place and one overall winner is chosen to present the County at the National Final.
• The judging criteria is the same as at the schools final.

April

• The National Finals take place in Croke Park

May

• Students are introduced to the Leaving Cert Business Course

Teaching and Learning Strategies

• Vists to and visits from outside agencies, businesses, government bodies.  Students benefit from seeing and talking to experts in an area they are considering for their Mini-Company.  
• Group Work/Co-operative teaching and learning: Students will develop their communication skills through team work, discussion, debate & conflict resolution, interviews, and presentations.
• Independent/Group Research:  Students will be encouraged to research global businesses and potential new products/services that could be viable as a result of economic, legislative, environmental and cultural changes.
• Team teaching & cross curricular approaches: Students will experience the assistance of teachers from different teaching disciplines who will assist in setting up a successful Mini-Company.  Student Café could be set up with eth joint co-operation of the Home Economics Department.
• ICT Integration:  Students will enhance their ICT skills from more advanced research techniques to using specific technology to design their initial prototype and/or contact overseas suppliers with the view of sourcing a cheaper manufacture/supplier.

Assessment

Credits are awarded to individual students based on: 

• Attendance and Punctuality
• Work ethic
• Co-operation with team members and teacher(s)
• Final Written Business Report

Resources

• Class Textbook
• Local Enterprise Booklet
• It’s the Business By Joe Stafford, Seamus McGowan
• Internet search resource: YouTube, Company websites etc.
• Articles from National Newspapers on successful ‘entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and new service/product ideas.
• TV:  Dragon’s Den, Week in Business, Nationwide, etc.
• TED.com 
• Retail Times
• Consumer Choice and Which magazines

Links with other subjects

The Enterprise module creates an opportunity to work with all subject areas across the curriculum.

• Practical subject areas such as Wood, Metal, Art, Home Economics offers opportunities to complete some of the production processes of the team’s product/service idea.  The practical subject teachers are a great source of information and offer excellent practical advice to students.
• The science subjects offer opportunities to gain knowledge required to advance a product/service concept while giving students access to the necessary equipment to carry out research experiments on the idea(s).
• The English department offer advice on sentence structure when writing up the Business Plan.
• The Maths department offer support with calculations for preparing Final accounts and computing percentages from the Market Research questionnaires.
• The Social sciences such as Geography, History, CSPE provide a source of information when carrying out the initial Market Research.

 The success of Mini-companies are dependent on cross-curricular assistance from all staff to the various companies.  

Evaluation

Each year the Enterprise programme is evaluated under the following criteria:

• How many students took part in the Module
• How many companies were established to enter Local and National Competitions?
• The success for companies at Local and National Competitions
• The feedback from students who took part in setting up a company
• The availability of resources to run the module
• The success or otherwise of the links with other subject departments
• The success of Mini-companies creating links with local/national businesses
• Feedback from external agencies, such as the Local Enterprise Board
• Feedback from Parents/guardians
• Feedback from Local Press