Central terms and objectives

If one understands socioeconomic education as those educational measures that aim to provide people with the knowledge and skills on the basis of which they can understand economic contexts in private, business and macroeconomic areas and incorporate them into their ecologically and socially responsible actions, it becomes clear that socioeconomic education not only moves between the two poles of economic science and economic practice, but also includes the environment and society.

Since socioeconomic education aims to enable people to act at the private level as well as at the level of business and the national economy, it covers several dimensions of economic activity in terms of content - "private households," "companies," "the state," "foreign countries" and "economic order" are all worth mentioning here. The Junior Business School takes this into account by starting from the household and the implications for the societal level in the first module, then transferring central principles and categories to the company level in the second module and applying them practically in project form in the third module.

The central perspective of socio-economic education - especially in today's world - is the holistic view. The global increase in energy consumption and the catastrophic damage to ecological habitats caused by economic activities in the past and present are increasingly becoming the focus of public attention. With the energy planning game, the Junior Business School has a didactic tool at its disposal with which students can examine and try out their own economic and ecological actions in the household. This familiar environment makes it easy for them to recognize connections between ecology and economy and to transfer the knowledge gained to their own behavior in the first step and to that of private companies in the second step.

The overriding objective is the "economically literate citizen," who can be characterized by the following features:

•     Professional competence
•     Social competence
•     Ecological awareness
•     Flexibility
•     Internationality
•     Lifelong willingness to learn
•     Independence
•     Self-confidence
•     Creativity
•     Sense of responsibility
•     Moral judgment

Entrepreneurship

The guiding principle of socio-economic education is that of mature, self-confident and creative citizens who not only engage in a variety of economic activities, but also take on responsibility for the environment and society in an active and self-organized manner. This self-image leads to the term entrepreneurship.

In everyday language, entrepreneurship is used equivalently to the terms "entrepreneurial spirit" and "entrepreneurship. Accordingly, an entrepreneur is a person who recognizes opportunities and potentials and exploits them by developing and realizing innovative entrepreneurial ideas. In a narrower sense, this is understood to mean the founding of a company, but in a broader sense any kind of enterprise, the implementation of a social project as well as the realization of an environmental or protest action.

The Junior Business School takes the relevance of this concept into account, especially with the implementation of the practical project. Here, the young people are motivated to take active action and supported in the implementation of concrete ideas.

Integrating socio-economic education into general education schools

Our modern society is characterized by an extensive economization of all areas of life that goes hand in hand with globalization. People not only come into contact with economic ways of thinking and acting in the context of almost every professional activity, but are also required to engage in economic activities on a daily basis as private individuals. However, our education system only prepares young people to a limited extent for self-confident and responsible participation in our society. Due to the aforementioned economization of society, the integration of a sustainability-oriented socio-economic education into the entire education system is therefore essential for adequate preparation in order to give young people the chance to assert themselves individually and socially responsibly in a highly economized environment after their school career.

The Junior Business School contributes to the integration of sustainability-oriented socio-economic education in general education schools.