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ABW 2009ABW Enterprise Education Monday 16th to Friday 20th November

About ABW

Year 10 Loreto Normanhurst students will work with Year 10 Knox Grammar students during the week.  ABW facilitates a learning experience wherein students from both schools interact on an intellectual as well as a social level.

ABW aims to promote enterprise through education. To this end, teams are required to meet time deadlines as they make decisions and work a computer simulation, as well as other tasks related to running a company.

ABW Enterprise Education is a week long intensive learning experience.

In an experimental, hands-on decision-making process, students make decisions affecting their company's performance in the marketplace, a model of the Australian economy. Students are challenged to run their company for a simulated 2 year period in competition against other student companies. Each quarter they need to make many decisions to determine such things as price, volume, marketing strategy, advertising and quality.

They are also required to work as a team to complete a range of tasks including;

  • Assume a variety of company roles,

  • Create an innovate product,

  • Make a video advertisement,

  • Organise a product launch,

  • Solve an ethical dilemma,

  • Mount a trade display,

  • Write a company report and

  • Make an oral presentation to a panel of judges.

Each of these tasks will be assessed and winning teams will be awarded certificates or medallions at the end of the week.

The ABW program now run across Australia at the school, State and National level, involving thousands of young people working with business and their local community for the betterment of all Australians.

ABW Enterprise Education is supported by both the Federal and State governments, universities and major businesses. 

What to expect

  • The students will be divided into co-educational teams and there will be two ‘Worlds’ [Knox and Loreto] of 19 teams each. 

  • Students learn about: communication skills, planning, organisation, presentation, negotiation, leadership, stress management, team work, confidence, problem solving, career aspirations

  • Mentors [adult assistants] who will be either volunteer teachers, parent volunteers or volunteers from a large variety of business backgrounds will assist the teams to learn to cope with the many new problems, which they will be facing. However, the mentors act in an advisory role only, and are moved around to more efficiently use their expertise.  

  • Each team will face strict deadlines for the production of their 8 quarterly reports. The reports are fed into a computer, which analyses the decisions and identifies changes, which regularly occur in the ‘ business environment’ over the ‘2 years’. This places stress on the team members and teamwork and co-operation become essential to meet these deadlines.  

  • During the week teams will need to work together to complete a series of tasks mentioned above

  • On the final day, Friday, external judges will evaluate the teams’ Final Reports, Videos, and Trade Displays. The students will be in ‘business dress’ and all are expected to participate in the trade displays of their respective products.

What to bring

  • Recess and lunch - you will be responsible for providing your own recess and lunch. The canteen of both schools will be open at recess and lunch times and you may also pre-order your lunch. Boarders based at Knox will be expected to organise their lunch to take with them each day. On Friday lunch will be provided at Knox and Loreto for everyone. It is a BBQ so if you are a vegetarian please let us know.

  • Stationery - you will need writing paper and pens each day. Your team will also be responsible for any art/craft or other supplies that are needed. These supplies are not available from the Art Department of either school

  • Videos, discs, cameras - these will be needed in the second half of the week. They can not be borrowed from either school.

  • Other Items - as the week progresses you may need props, costumes etc for your trade display and/or your product launch. These items are not to be borrowed from the school.

    • What to wear

    What not to wear

    Monday and Friday- Business Dress - smart, neat clothing. Think about what would be appropriate to wear if you were to work in an office.

    Tuesday to Thursday - neat casual clothing that reflects the image that your company is trying to create. (No thongs or sandals)

    Neat casual clothing – this means your tops should cover your shoulders, have a collar and not be a low cut at the front. You need to wear pants or a skirt that goes to your knees, with stockings. Your shoes must be enclosed (no sandals or thongs)

    Thongs or sandals (or any open style shoes - of any description)

    Inappropriate clothing such as:

    • Short midriff tops

    • Low cut pants or skirts

    • Clothing that exposes the midriff area or too high above the knee

    If you do not have appropriate clothing, you are to wear your House T-shirt and track pants or your school uniform.

    You may be sent home or excluded from activities if you are not appropriately dressed. 

     

    The Role of your Mentor

    A mentor's role is to guide and facilitate student learning so that participants of ABW gain the most from the ABW experience. A mentor is not there to make decisions but to facilitate the student's general understanding of business.

    Your mentor will

  • help you to find answers - that is answer questions with questions

  • refer you to the ABW manual and to other team members to solve problems

  • help you develop and refine interpersonal and collaborative learning skills

  • act as a sounding board for ideas but will not solve things for you

  • support the CEO and other team members in the decisions that need to be made

  • encourage you to do each task

  • be proud of all your successes

  • give you moral support when you need it

  • be patient with you

  • allow you to make mistakes

  • understand that this is a new learning experience for you.