The Business 2000 project is just one example of a recent trend that has seen the practical take its place beside the theoretical in classrooms across the state.
It is no longer enough, especially in Business Studies, to rely on the more traditional `talk and chalk' educational model. Today's students expect tangible, living examples of their subjects and not just the relevant facts, figures and statistics.
Forging links between the workplace and the classroom is one way to achieve this. Business 2000 for example, with a pack that includes case studies of leading companies, a CD Rom, an Internet site and this weekly article, serves as a multimedia oriented complement to the humble but equally vital text book.
The employers body IBEC, who run a business and education links programme, has long been an advocate of such enhanced education projects. Last month Rathmore Community School established a partnership with Cadbury Ireland receiving a state of the art computer centre from the chocolate company.
When the link was set up Mr Aidan Flaherty, human resource director of Cadbury Ireland acknowledged that the education system is not as geared up as it could be to prepare students for their working lives.
"The emphasis on the Leaving Cert examination militates against the development of broadly based and transferable personal, interpersonal and enterprise skills," he said.
Mr Padraig O'Grady of IBEC has expressed the belief that this country can stay ahead of competitors by giving young people "more than the good education we got".
"They need good basic literacy, numeracy and communication skills but on top of that they need a positive attitude to business, readiness for life in the workplace, the belief that they are winners individually and the conviction that by working together in teams they have the potential to be the best in the world," he said.
Mr O'Grady's vision may sound like a tall order but for the past four years, another programme, Junior Achievement (JA) Ireland has been doing just that. JA was set up to encourage young people to participate in a range of educational programmes in order to better understand business and the global economy.
Conceived in the US around 80 years ago, the programme went international in 1989 and is now operational in 100 countries and gives young people between the age of 5 and 18 the chance to learn about business directly from business people themselves. Perhaps more importantly, JA shows students the practical benefits of education and prepares them for the world of work.
JA receives support from a variety of companies including, Motorola, Smurfit Europe, AIB, Bank of Ireland and Aer Rianta. Volunteers from these companies run courses at primary and secondary school level reflecting the hands on approach of the programme.
Mr Aodhan Hobbs, Corporate Relationship Manager with Allied Irish Bank ran a JA course on Success Skills in Ard Scoil Ris in Marino, in Dublin. He says that giving the students an insight into his own working environment challenged their perceptions of the workplace.
"It was very rewarding to share some of the knowledge we have in the corporate world with the students," he said.
Ms Aisling Coleman, a personnel officer with airport body Aer Rianta, completed a course entitled the `Economics of Staying At School' with second year students at Ballymun Comprehensive in Dublin. The JA organisation has a longstanding commitment to more disadvantaged areas and she said the students benefited from being exposed to her own experiences at University and her subsequent career progress.
"I think most of the students got something out of it but if even only one of them was persuaded to stay on at school because of the programme I would be delighted," she said. Students who have participated in the programmes agree that JA is a positive learning experience. Ms Lyndsey Lynam (19) is now in her first year studying economics in UCD but got her first taste of the business world through JA. Ms Lynam went through a course in transition year and ended up as the Managing Director of her own school based company. "Before that I had thought of MD's doing nothing," she said. "But you soon find out there is a lot of work involved, having to keep to targets and motivate people. I learned an awful lot".
This entrepreneurial flair is honed even more specifically in another programme that has proved phenomenally successful over the years. When the Young Entrepreneur Scheme (YES) was set up in 1992 there were only 11 participating schools. Last year 250 schools were involved and more than 7,000 students became business people for a year.
Sponsored by Enterprise Ireland, the YES is a school based competition where entrants set up and run their own businesses. According to organisers a wide range of skills (communication, problem solving, negotiating, planning and teamwork) can be acquired through the programme. Some of the winning projects for 1996/1997 give an idea of the diversity of projects carried out by students. Our Lady's School Rathnew, Co Wicklow set up Doughy Creations a company specialising in the production and sale of colourful wall hanging products made from dough. In the Senior Section, The winners came from the Sancta Maria College who produced tapes with nursery rhymes in Irish and English from their company Incy Wincy's.
Ms Kathleen Fitzgerald of Enterprise Ireland said that the project is invaluable in that it "sows the seed of enterprise in students and gets them thinking that business success is achievable".
As Mr Jeremiah O'Donoghue, principal of Rathmore Community School put it: "Today's teenagers, if given this kind of practical assistance now, will be in a position to contribute to their own and their country's well-being in the future". Next week Business 2000 looks at total quality management
