Founda strongly believes in equitable education for all. Below is all the modules of the school program, and the first seven modules, with a lesson by lesson process to getting your students to become young entrepreneurs, utilising 21st Century skills, for free.

Each lesson is mapped to relevant ACARA standards for Economics and Business - Year 9 (Version 9.0).

All students should have the opportunity to experience a hands on, project based learning style to becoming an entrepreneur starting their first business.

For the business savvy looking to make life easier, the complete package including classroom resources, tutorial videos and assessment tasks, is available by joining Founda's community. Term and Semester packages available. Click here for further information.

Lesson by lesson. Help your students create their first business.

Module 1 Lesson 1 - Ideation

Learning intention - Understand the ideation process and engage the entrepreneurial spirit. 

Success criteria: I can explain what the ideation process is. I have started brainstorming business ideas.

ACARA - AC9HE9K04 AC9HE9S01 AC9HE9S02

Learning activities:

Introduce Founda course to students. Watch ‘It's business time’ video. Video gives a brief overview of outcomes of course (highlights the making money part), entrepreneur journey and 21st C skills learned. Check out past businesses through the course to inspire. 10mins

Students research the 10 richest people in Australia. Complete Who, What, Worth. Discuss findings -this gets students ‘thinking bigger’. Ask them to imagine seeing themselves on the list. This is the purpose of Founda - to instill the skills and innovation needed to join this list! 10min

Now define ideation. Brainstorm. Then get definition - 

Ideation is the creative process of generating, developing, and communicating new ideas, where an idea is understood as a basic element of thought that can be either visual, concrete, or abstract. Ideation comprises all stages of a thought cycle, from innovation, to development, to actualization. (Wikipedia) 5mins

Now go through business types and product/service. 

Define the difference between a product and a providing a service.

Go through the business types - DTC (direct to consumer)

B2B (business to business)

SAAS (software as a service)

Selling Services (providing a service to consumer)

Students get definitions and identify examples of each to cement understanding. 10min

Students now have 10secs to decide which business type they think suits them. 

Now the fun part. Students have the option to work as a sole trader, or in a partnership. Prior groups through the course of 3 or more students have traditionally demonstrated poor performance and internal issues - totally the teacher’s call on whether you allow this. In the past if a group has their heart set on it, they have had to come up with a proposal as to why this will be of benefit to them and is the best course of action for the business. Students then have 30secs to decide on being a sole trader or to work in a partnership. Get them to move as necessary. When selection has been, students need to identify the following - what are the pros and cons of working solo and in a partnership? (profits, work load, contacts). Identify these on the board.

Rules for the program that are quite helpful - 1. Sustainability (Business must be eco-friendly/sustainable in some way), 2. Bootstrapping (A $50 budget goal - try to keep to this, as it encourages problem solving/entrepreneurial skills, students will end up spending less/more), 3. Ethical (Can't buy complete product off of Ali Express for example, and on sell as your own), 4. Positive (Always support the other businesses in the program), 5. Giving back (Some proceeds will be donated to a charity of your choice), 5. Entrepreneurship (Think bigger and have fun!) 10min

Finish the lesson with brainstorming potential ideas for business! H/W is to talk to parents about ideas. 

Join Founda's community for the following resources: Founda video. Business types worksheet. Parent email template about Founda course. Mentor email template. 

Lesson 2 - Ideation

Learning intention:Understand the ideation process and engage the entrepreneurial spirit. 

Success criteria: I can conduct an ideation process. I can identify potential business ideas. 

ACARA - AC9HE9S01 AC9HE9S02

Learning activities

Recap last lesson. Entrepreneur story (news.com.au or other sources) - share an inspirational business story - find similarities to what the business has achieved and what the young entrepreneurs will achieve. Recap definitions of ideation and business types. 5min

Break into partnerships and solo groups. Students will have a number of methods available to them to help in the idea for a business process. Googling ideation processes will also aid in this. Reinforce Founda’s core value - eco-friendly and sustainable businesses - this should be a core component of their own business. UQ run an excellent session to help address this stage of the journey - https://ventures.uq.edu.au/discovery-masterclasses . Check out the Problem Discovery class and others.

Methods - 

5 problems in their life right now.

Write down passions/interests.

Who do they know? Contacts.

Crazy 8s activity.

Students will need to come up with 5 potential business ideas by the end of the session. It’s great to rank them from best to least doable - assign potential contacts to each one that can help, materials at hand already that would help start the business, skills or interests that align with particular ideas. Assign which business type it would be to each idea. No food businesses, unless they have access to a food license and a commercial kitchen. Pet food business is doable though. 50min

H/W - Talk to parents about ideas. Ask about contacts/family/friends who could help. Cement 1-3 ideas for business. 5min

Join Founda's community for the following resources: - Crazy 8s worksheet. 

Lesson 3 - Ideation

Learning intention - Understand the ideation process and engage the entrepreneurial spirit. 

Success criteria: I can explain problems and solutions/pain points for customers. I can decide what my business idea is.   

ACARA - AC9HE9S01 AC9HE9S02 AC9HE9S04

Learning activities

Recap. E story (news.com.au or other sources). Ideation, business types, processes to help ideation of business ideas. 5min

Students should have 1-3 ideas. It is vitally important to have this list - if the first idea doesn’t pan out, they will have ideas to fall back on. Take them through ‘Problem and solution’ Founda video. Define what problems and solutions mean in the world of business. Examine a case study business eg Nike, Apple etc and have students identify the problems and solutions that business has come up with. 

The entrepreneurs now need to clearly identify the problem/pain point for potential customers and the solution (their product/service) for each of their ideas. It is best practice to try and identify 3 problems and 3 solutions for any given idea. (The solutions will help later with USP/POD). 50min

Entrepreneurs now must cement an idea as their business they are going to embark on. The problem and solution must be as clearly articulated as it can be at this stage.

H/W - Talk to parents and contacts about being the founder of a new business! 5min

Join Founda's community for the following resources: Founda video.

14 modules. A step by step process for teachers.

Access modules 1-7 for free. Join Founda to access modules 8-14, videos, resources, unit plan and assessment tasks for all modules.

Begin the first step on the entrepreneurial journey below.

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