SJHHS Unveils New Virtual Enterprise Lab
Two students in Mr. Wooten’s new Virtual Enterprise class introduce their presentation on creating, managing and owning a vending machine business.
September 20, 2017
Along with the new 2017-2018 school year, SJHHS unveiled a number of new classes, including the Virtual Enterprise class. The goal of the class is to give students a solid foundation in business as they move forward into adulthood.
The Virtual Enterprise class was founded in Europe and was first introduced into the states in the mid-nineties as a way of giving high school kids an introduction into real world business.
The basic premise of the class is that students start a virtual, or pretend, business and must run it as if it were an actual company. They will eventually compete with other schools for the title of the best business. They hire for positions and budget salaries, giving them a real taste of the world to come.
An average day in the class is quite similar to the that of a working class adult. As the teacher, Jeremy Wooten said, “It is kind of like showing up to work. You have a job to do, and you have to often have meetings.”
However, this is not a typical high school class. There is almost no actual lecturing by the teacher and quite a bit of autonomy by the students. They are in charge of choosing what they want their business to be, what department they want to work in, and how they should keep their business afloat.
But, students must do more than stay afloat if they want to win the competition. Every year, schools travel to a given convention center to compete for the title of best business. This year, it will take place in San Diego. Once there, they will create a booth, where they will give a basic rundown of what their business entails and how they plan to run it.
For the competitive aspect of the convention, they compete in a variety of categories according to Wooten, “there is a commercial competition; you get to do a business plan competition and a booth competition.” Wooten expressed his excitement for the competition as he described the students as “always enthusiastic” as they hope to do well in San Diego this year.
