Preparing for the business of life

The rain couldn't keep them away: the Pitt Islanders came by boat and Kaingaroa School drove for an hour across the island for market day with Te One School.

They had agreed to unite their three separate currencies for their combined market day earlier this month, and the stalls selling all matter of goods from shells and driftwood to wrapping paper, ribbons and sweets did a brisk trade despite the weather.

The Chatham Islands schools were having their first taste of a market day in the Primary Enterprise Programme (PrEP), the Enterprise New Zealand Trust (ENZT) programme that sees primary school pupils set up their own businesses, legal systems and currencies to get an understanding for the workings of the world.

And, with the opportunity to be Prime Minister, run a bank and take legal action against their classmates, it's a programme that children can't get enough of.

Te One School principal Judy Wright said her pupils had a ball and at the same time picked up skills in maths, language, technology and working as part of a group.

"They're still working on their profit and loss sheets and some of our groups are going to be bankrupt but the enthusiasm the children are showing running their own businesses and making the decisions on how they run is enormous," she said.

With no bank and just two shops on the main Chatham Island, the programme has introduced the children to commercial concepts that would otherwise be foreign to them.

But the programme also benefits children in the 210 schools of mainland New Zealand that run PrEP programmes.

PrEP national director Kathie Willis travels extensively to help schools run the programme and she said the most common feedback from children was that it was "just like real life and good practice for becoming adults".

"The programme, with its own currency, also allows children to make mistakes and feel the consequences, while the school's bank account stays intact!" Mrs Willis said.

The seven-year old programme is designed to fully integrate with the curriculum. Students design and operate their own functioning society, work in ventures within their own economy, establish marketplaces and exchange goods and services they have produced.

"Traditional lessons can turn off some students. We find that the buy-in to PrEP is immense and engages students in learning as they pick up new skills and at the same time learn how to participate in a market-based, democratic society."

ENZT, a trust with $1.5 million in annual turnover, works to promote enterprise education, economic literacy and business understanding, and develop a "can do" attitude in cooperation with New Zealand businesses.

It also runs the Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) for secondary schools in which senior secondary school students form a company, become directors, and develop products and services, which they market and sell.

YES is school-based and ENZT touts its benefits as teaching skills in budgeting, planning, interpersonal relations, decision making, reporting, communications; risk management and teamwork.

The Enterprise New Zealand Trust's website.