A new pack about being busy and productive and happy will soon be available to primary schools. It has been developed to encourage business and enterprise skills in primary school children. It will be launched by the Minister for Education and Science early in December. Primary teachers who want to encourage their students' decision-making, participatory and entrepreneurial skills are expected to welcome the new resource pack, which will be distributed free to over 1,000 schools throughout the country following its official launch.
It is produced by the Curriculum Development Unit of Limerick's Mary Immaculate College. The pack is a cross-curricular programme for use with 10- to 12-year-old children. The pack, which comes with a video called Bi Gnothach, focuses in part on the world of work and the jobs that people do.
It includes teachers' notes and activity sheets. Primary school children will especially enjoy the section of the video which is devoted to teaching the steps involved in setting up a business. This is narrated by the children who were involved in the pilot project and features footage of these children at work on the programme. A total of 10 schools in the Mid-West were involved in the project. The pack will be available through the Enterprise Boards, which are funding it. It is hoped, according to Beth Hickey, project officer with the CDU, that the programme will encourage students to stay on at school and give them an appreciation of school life. It explores the ethics of enterprise and promotes the practice of buying Irish and being environmentally friendly.
The video also addresses the advantages and challenges of enterprise while exploring many of its principles, including risk-taking, advertising and marketing and it features advice from various Irish entrepreneurs.
In-career development training will be provided for each school and Beth Hickey will visit schools in the New Year to provide training in the use of the programme to ensure that teachers are familiar with the content of the programme and that they are comfortable with its methodologies.
