Europe and Me
An interactive classroom programme in which primary/secondary students explore the relationship between the natural, human, and capital resources found in different countries through the use of hands-on activities. They are guided through their learning by volunteers from the business world.

Purpose and process
To help students investigate:
- How businesses operate in Europe
- The meaning of economic concepts such as ‘sustainability’ and ‘interdependency’
- The relationship between natural, human, and capital resources found in different countries
- Actual European businesses producing goods and services for consumers
Learning outcomes
Students can learn to:
- Identify the basic 'what, how and who' decisions faced by people in all economies
- Recognize economic interdependence in a region and among different regions
- Identify and analyze different types and uses of resources in different regions, and the impact of scarcity
- Investigate how raw materials can have added value
- Understand how and why businesses choose their locations based on access to resources and the advantages and disadvantages of production in particular countries
- Define income, expense, profit and loss
- Understand how a business tracks income and expenses.

Curricular or thematic relevance
Standalone enterprise activity or could be linked to: Business Studies; Geography; Citizenship; PSHE; Careers Education.
Europe and Me is implemented in 8 countries in Europe and in 4 of them it is accredited by education authorities for teaching within the school curriculum.
How to organise:
Series of 6 1hour sessions - could be run as timetabled lessons or as extra-curricular activities
Volunteer involvement
Business volunteers are required to support student involvement in hands-on activities
Additional comments
A brochure is available for download here: http://archive.ja-ye.org/Download/TES/europe-and-me.pdf
Detailed information on the programme is available at: http://ja-yecoreprogrammes.org/europe_and_me/
Files for download:
europe-and-me.pdf / 3511kB
Provider Institution:
, JA Europe Belgium
helper do TM detail body (June 6th, 1st half)

Veronica Mobilio
04.03.2014
The decision to go international for instance creating a joint-venture or deciding to sell own products/services across borders is something very important nowadays. And in school it is even more important to have programmes - like this one - able to raise awareness about the pro and cons of internationalization and to improve students’ ability to evaluate global, local and regional resources.