The County and City Enteprise Boards, Microsoft and Ulster Bank have launched a new business simulation game for secondary school students in Ireland called businessgame.ie
In businessgame.ie the students own and run their own G.A.A sports store over 52 or 12 'virtual' weeks, making key business decisions every week, such as stock ordering, recruiting, financing, marketing and staff training.
The game also contains teaching material which can be downloaded to enhance the classroom learning which takes place around the topics raised in the game. Try it out at www.businessgame.ie
Teachers can log on and get a password and can register their students to play the game in class or at home. Students can play up to 5 games at a time letting them see the consequences of their choices in the virtual weeks so that they experience all aspects of the choices they make while playing the game.
Check it out www.businessgame.ie
Your score is made up of 3 elements
- Your health montior indicates your personal health. This is linked to the number of virtual hours worked in the store as shown on the main screen. If you work too much, you get sick - be sure to take time out! This is used to re-inforce the concept that work must be balanced if you are to be successful.
- Your money indicator shows how much money your business is making. This is supplemented by profit and loss accounts and graphs in the boardroom, which indicate how your business is doing. Every decision you make has an impact on the profit a business can make and you might have to decide to sell a product at cost as a loss leader to get customers - you might even have to add on an extra product to get people to spend more. These are everyday decisions that are made in business and the game is a great opportunity to get practice without actually risking real money. Log on and see what we mean.
- Your social standing indictor is important in how you treat your customers, your staff and your community. A balance is needed to make everything run smoothly and problems that arise must be dealt with to ensure your business runs smoothly. Check our your people skills - even virtual workers can go on stike, sick leave or resign - how do you think you will manage - Log on and see for yourself.
Log on and play! www.businessgame.ie
Student Registration: Each student registers themselves online. They will need a valid email address and a confirmation email is returned automatically. Alternatively your teacher can register the whole class and everybody can play the game at their own pace.