The Swanlea Virtual Enterprise is a new initiative to support
students working towards the BTEC National in Business
Studies (equivalent to 3 A levels).
Swanlea are setting up a new 'virtual' enterprise which will
trade with other virtual companies on the global Europen virtual network (Europen).
EUROPEN is a non-profit association that was established
on the 27th of October 1997.
The founder members of EUROPEN were educational institutions from
the following countries: Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and Switzerland. Additional
members of EUROPEN are: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brasil, Croatia,
Czech Republic, Hungary, Japan, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia,
Slovac Republic, Slovenia, South Afica, Ukraine, USA.
EUROPEN is the world-wide practice firm (Virtual Enterprises) network. The
network consists of 5000 practice firms. Forty-two countries are involved in
the EUROPEN association.
EUROPEN started as a European Project in November 1993. Since then it has spread to a global network involving schools and colleges across the globe.
The history of teaching students through virtual enterprises can be traced back to the 17th century, for example Mr. Karl F. Barth wrote the following in 1776: "The teacher lets them choose a sort of action and a trading location....; each one receives fictitious capital, goods or securities...
At Swanlea, our students are setting up a company which will
initially sell Stakeholder Pensions. We are being supported by our company
sponsors Merrill Lynch and Royal Bank of Scotland / NatWest in creating our
Virtual Enterprise. Merrill Lynch work with a number of virtual enterprises
in the USA and have an annual competition for the best enterprises ( http://www.ml.com/philanthropy/spotlight/businessplancompetition.html ).
In the UK, the centre of competence for Virtual Enterprise is
Coleg Morgannwg ( www.morgannwg.ac.uk )in
South Wales, and we are working closely with staff at the college
who have been very helpful.
Over the next few months we will be writing a BLOG on this site which will
give details of progress and helpful hints for other schools and colleges so
watch this space!