The Youth Entrepreneurship Academy is a six-pronged extensive curriculum with lessons in foundational values, entrepreneurial mindset, economics, marketing, business finance, and applied principled entrepreneurship. YE Academy partners with businesses to provide funding to help schools implement this curriculum.

Each prong of instruction includes learning objectives, a SLANT Method instructional guide, slide presentation, printable posters and a suggested supply list. There are also excellent background resources and courses for teachers seeking knowledge.

Most notably, the principle costs for this curriculum will be the supplies needed for the lessons. YA Academy also serves as a conduit to connect teachers and schools to available funding from businesses.

Foundational Values

The course starts with eight core values that serve as the basis for all of the lessons to come.  Honesty and responsibility are consistent themes throughout the course.

Entrepreneurial Mindset

The 28 lessons in this section form the core of a business plan generated by the students.  They use a Business Model Canvas graphic organizer to accomplish this.  It compels the students to consider the economic feasibility of their business model as they build it.

Several games and activities in this section help the students get into the mindset of a budding business owner.

Economics

The economics lessons incorporate activities centered on ten economic principles.  Among these are The Four S’s – scarcity, self-interest, subjective value, and sunk cost.

Marketing

The seven lessons and activities in this section include identifying a target market and demographics, branding, competitive advantage, customer focus and market research.

Business Finance

The emphasis of these modules is on calculating costs, pricing, profit and revenue, funding, and setting SMART goals.  A Math for Entrepreneurs reference provides the formulas used throughout the module.

Applied Principles of Entrepreneurship

The culmination of this course is preparation for Market Day.  Students pitch their business models to the teacher.  The teacher acts as a venture capitalist, funding those with a credible business model, and who appear to be able to execute it.  The student businesses that receive funding create a popup market at the school or in their community

My Observations

I found navigating the website to be a bit difficult.  The curriculum sections are not in the menu.  I had to return to the homepage each time i wanted to move to the next section.

The site provides well-conceived educational resources.  If YA Academy can connect you with funding to properly implement it, it’s a tremendous learning experience in entrepreneurship for high school students.

Learn how to start and run your own business with the webinars and information provided on this site. The webinars are presented by teen entrepreneurs and include topics such as idea to product development, business leadership, and how you can build a business for social change. The site has advice on the steps to developing a business plan, financing, marketing and growing your business.

Independent Youth Inc. is a non-profit organization that educates youth (ages 12-18) on entrepreneurship. The organization focuses on teaching students the fundamentals of business ownership while bringing awareness to the importance of it. The programs and resources provided by Independent Youth enable students to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, preparing them for future success.

From site: This free online textbook provides complete coverage of material found in most college-level financial accounting courses and managerial accounting courses.  In addition to the text, this principles of accounting book includes a number of interactive components to aid your learning process.  Most components are cross-linked for easy navigation.  You should spend a few minutes, beginning on the “chapters” page, to familiarize yourself with the overall content and web structure.

Forget space aliens and race cars — here’s a game that gives kids skills they can use for the rest of their lives.  Hot Shot Business is a fast-paced simulation game for budding entrepeneurs, where kids open their own pet spa, skateboard factory, or comic shop.

Young business owners start marketing campaigns; change products, services and prices; and most importantly, respond quickly to demanding customers and big news events.  They’ve got to think fast and act even faster to take advantage of opportunities and keep their business growing!

This is a Flash-based game.   You will need a Flash emulator extension on your browser, such as Ruffle, to make it work properly.

High school teacher Greg Fisher created these lesson plan materials to help students learn about economics by starting a business.  This semester-long course takes students through the steps of planning and investing for a business.  There are rubrics to help teachers in assessing student work.