Could markets and schools combine?

Who doesn’t love a combination of two great things that make a greater invention? For example peanut butter and jam, cheese and crackers, spaghetti and meatballs, oreos and milk, or the age old classic salt and pepper? Now this makes me wonder: would it be possible if schools could use markets as a learning process for business studies? It could in turn influence students going out and exercise their entrepreneurial spirit on or off the market.

Would it be a good idea to some how add market work experience into business studies at school? Now I know I am out of my depth with this but, just for a second or more I want to just speak about the potential of markets mixing with schools, in order to give the young some real work experience especially those interested in running and starting their own business. Personally, in school I found business studies very boring, it was really different compared to college and university, and what I have learned from pursuing my own business interest. Also, if I am honest I feel I did not learn anything from it or that it was anything at all to do with business, it was basic life skills and English being taught! Now to give the youngster a real chance of experiencing what it is like to start up a business and work on a business like this, it helps to develop the business idea into reality by showing that businesses are not as glamorous straight away as they show you on TV. You have to work hard to be able to get to that point.

The good positive points on this would be:

• It would help with the development of young budding entrepreneurs.
• It is hands on real work experience.
• Provided it would work it would provide many more jobs and create many new businesses.
• Hopefully would encourage the young to be entrepreneurial.
• Help the youth get ready for real life situations when readying to leave schools.
• Would help in securing the markets future of entrepreneurs.
• Would give market traders that opting extra help and self satisfaction in the sense that they are doing something to help the future of markets and in particular, that child’s future.
• Finally, more or less make business and markets a bit more fun.

I personally feel this would be a great and more fun way to give a better chance to the pupils that learn better by being hands on and actually doing the tasks they are learning. This would help to give them a better understanding of how businesses run. Again, I will reiterate that I am not a professional in teaching and these are my personal views. Also, I personally feel that this may help students in schools studying business studies and getting ready for college/university as it gives them a better chance of a higher mark in this subject, and feel this will also make the course more fun, more educational, and more beneficial for the student in the long run.

Now I suppose what it comes down to now is can it actually be done? My answer to that is I actually don’t know, but hope there is a way. There would need to be so many organisations involved for this collaboration, and it would have to be slowly introduced and implemented I would imagine, as well as some board agreeing on this idea. This is something that is way out of my league and that includes so many factors but I feel it is a genuinely good idea, which is why I have brought it to my readers attention in the hope of somebody looking into this at best, and to find out how others feel about this.

Maybe this is not a good idea, as school students are perhaps too young and there is a case of age restrictions etc. but if this is the issue, then I would still suggest on making it a suggestion for the colleges. This way the students are older, they are at that point where they are figuring out what they want to do, some may want university some may not, some may want work and again some may not, some may seek self employment, but not know how to start out. Markets can be the key to business studies and education and pave the way for the fashion student who wants to have his/her own stall/shop or the cooking student who wants to open a mini bakery. As you see, in college this can be spread across many courses and topic areas, with the intention of learning about that subject so they can start something for themselves instead of working for somebody else.

This is just my suggestion let me know yours?

Please note images were obtained from the following links: michaelsseaver, chichester.ac.uk