Dear students and teachers! 

This learning material is created to help teachers and students who are interested in entrepreneurship and startup world. Materials are composed in frames of DigiYouth programme, which is an international student startup programme for schools, carried out in 2018-2021. Programme brought together more than 200 youngsters from Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Sweden, who developed digital products or services in International student teams – starting from idea creation, through the prototyping until marketing and sales.

All the activities were a part of the general school curriculum.

DigiYouth projects aims were:

• make more space in school curriculum to create, innovate and integrate
• connect classroom learning to real-world contexts
• combine the development of digital skills and entrepreneurship
• transfer the best of start-up approach from business to education
• show students the potential of digital solutions in different economic sectors
• give students an overview of entrepreneurial opportunities and career choices related to digital technologies

Our project study programme was created for the period 1,5 years, but it is possible to use created materials also during shorter courses, during school classes etc. Programme and materials were tested by more than 200 students and 20 teachers from four countries.

Materials for schools describe three phases: idea phase, prototyping phase, sales and marketing phase. Important phases in the process are also teamwork and cooperation withe external experts and organisations.

In each part of this material you will find an introduction to the topic, tasks to the students, as well as templates for the tasks described.

Case study: DigiYouth program fosters student startups in schools

DigiYouth was an experimental learning programme. Students learned by doing – they practiced digital entrepreneurship. In several Estonian, Finnish, Latvian and Swedish schools, teachers and mentors support the activities of cross-border student startups. Students engaged in the development of digital products or services starting from idea creation and formation of teams, through the prototyping until marketing and sales. The process was as close to real life as possible, taking into account an age of participating students and skills level.

Startup development took place inside regular schooldays, combining and integrating elements of several subjects: math and science, computer studies, arts and crafts, civic studies and English language. In DigiYouth process, most of the 21st century skills could be developed. The focus was on the following:

Self-management: How to understand oneself better? How to find motivation? How to manage time and energy? How to enjoy making mistakes and learn from them? How to be persistent to reach one´s goals?

Problem-solving: How to be more creative, think out-of-box and find innovative solutions to problems? How to think critically and find information or arguments to support one´s case?

Communication skills: How to be flexible and efficient in communication? How to handle difficult situations? How to cope with cultural differences? How to take initiative and be a good leader? How to argue for one´s cause?

Digital skills: How to make use of all the new technologies that are more and more shaping our lives? How to use them to make life better and more fun?

The study module on digital entrepreneurship lasted for 3 half-years. Students from four countries met once in every half year. Between the meetings, they communicated with their international “colleagues” regularly using video-conferencing and collaboration tools. During the process, students also participated in national and regional hackathons, robotics, start-up, business idea and innovation competitions etc.

Study materials with tasks, teacher tips and additional reading suggestions were situated in intraweb which was accessible for the participating students, teachers and mentors.

Cross-border student startup – a group of students (aged 14–19) from at least 2 project countries who go through a digital product/service development and business simulation process during 2–3 half-years (60–90 hours) using start-up methods.

Digital products or services – any product or service with a digital component, i.e. learning and gaming solutions; 3D, visual programming; robotics; low+high tech art and craft; mobile apps; hardware programming and IoT; communication solutions/platforms; digitally supported services, etc.

Development of digital entrepreneurship competence at basic / upper-secondary level includes

• provision of learning experiences in digital product or service development that connect classroom learning to real-world contexts;
• enhanced development self-management, problem-solving and communication skills;
• combined development of entrepreneurship and digital skills that students feel will be relevant to their future careers;
• demonstrating creativity through the development of innovative products and services that use digital technologies, and also through the design of learning process;
• transfer of start-up methods from business context to educational context.