The challenge
As BP is the official oil and gas partner for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, BP tasked EdComs to work in partnership with LOCOG to produce the Enterprise Trading Game, a work-related classroom resource that challenges students to engage in a simulation of real-life trading. The objectives of the project were to:
- enhance BP’s existing Enterprise programme model by creating a self-contained resource that would have implicit within it the Olympic and Paralympic values of excellence, respect, and determination.
- reflect a London 2012 context while still delivering significant enterprise education value
- combine educational expertise in enterprise with business engagement and delivery
- combine the Olympic partnership themes with BP’s broader leadership and business skills agenda to make a major education contribution
- enhance BP’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) provision, by providing a resource that promotes the development of functional mathematics skills
- deliver the DCSF’s Enterprise objectives, leverage BP’s London 2012 sponsorship, and help to extend Get Set, London 2012’s education programme
- consolidate BP’s commitment to its broader business skills and leadership agenda.
Our approach
The Enterprise Trading Game online resource and CD-Rom is available free to UK schools from the BP Educational Service website. The resource includes films, news slides, a trade calculator spreadsheet, teacher notes and a trader pack.
The resource provided excellent cross-curricular opportunities in Business, Maths and Enterprise. It also allows students to engage with the content in a real-world context.
Outcomes
The Enterprise Trading Game has been very well received, and accessed by 40 per cent of UK Secondary schools.
“They’re developing the types of skills we want to develop in students: numeracy skills, problem-solving skills, communication skills.” Teacher, Woodbridge High School
“The BPES team at EdComs have done a fantastic job on it and I genuinely think this is the best resource we have produced in the 5 years I have been involved in our education work” Ian Duffy, Business Adviser, UK Social and Community Affairs, BP International Ltd
