Virtual Enterprise Australia (VEA)
A fantastic way for students to learn about business and how it operates is to set up a Virtual Enterprise in your school. Because the model is extremely flexible, it can be linked to different year levels (eg. Years 9-12) as well as many different subjects (eg. Business Economics, English Communication, Information Technology, Art, Retail).
Virtual Enterprises are student-operated businesses. While they are virtual (or simulated) businesses with no real goods and services, all the processes of business are real, allowing students to learn what goes on in business without getting caught up in the production of goods and the delivery of services.
Each Virtual Enterprise has a business partner, a real business in the real economy. Staff from the real business will mentor your students and teachers in things such as staff training, writing a business plan, developing a marketing strategy, setting up business structures - everything that small businesses need to know.
Hence, students are engaged in the real tasks that businesses undertake and generally, staff (your students) rotate through the various departments (eg. Human Resources, Finance and Accounts, Sales and Marketing, etc). As well, your students will be communicating, working in teams, problem solving, learning to negotiate etc. It is student centred learning at its best. Virtual Enterprise tasks are usually linked to criteria and units of competence for assessment purposes.
Virtual Enterprises trade with each other - which mimics the real economy. There are all kinds of Virtual Enterprises, ranging from a simulated advertising agency to a recruitment agency......a radio station to a travel agency.....and a restaurant to an airline - all trading with each other across Australia!!
Virtual Enterprise Australia's National Office in Melbourne operates the VEA Bank, its Taxation Office, its utilities facilities and all the centralised functions that are found in any economy. It processes your Virtual Enterprise's loans, sends your students virtual phone and electricity notices as well as bank statements based on their trading activity and involves them in all the real functions that are part of the day to day operation of any business.
Another fantastic benefit of Virtual Enterprise Australia's program is the ability of your teachers and students to link with around 4000 similar simulated businesses throughout the world by trading with them via the internet or through the mail.
For more information on how a Virtual Enterprise can operate in your school, please contact either:
Or, at Virtual Enterprise Australia on Ph: (03) 8687 9055
Address: Suite 212a, 757 Bourke Street, Docklands Vic 3008.
A new website is under construction. In the meantime, additional information may be found on the Australian Network of Practice Firms 
website.
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