Abstract:

12-year-old Finnish school children get familiar with working life by coming to work for one day in the Me&MyCity learning environment. The children practice financial, employment, and entrepreneurial skills in the miniature societies of the Me&MyCity project. Tampere joined it in 2013.

The Finnish Me& MyCity project has expanded to the most important Finnish towns. Me & MyCity societies are miniature towns with companies and public services. Pupils work in these towns for one day earning virtual salaries and functioning as mini-society's citizens and consumers. Me&MyCity operates in 13 locations and reaches 80% of sixth graders in Finland. Every school year, about 50,000 pupils visit Me&MyCity. The main idea of this project is described at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cenCiJ3gVI

This project investigates how the students experienced the Me&MyCity project. The research object comprised 220 pupils and additional material for 70 pupils. The schools are located in Tampere and in five municipalities around it. The theoretic frame of reference is based on the Finnish core curriculum 2016 for sixth graders, Phenomenal learning and it employs Strauss’s grounded theory. The empirical material of the study was gathered using various information acquisition methods: interviews, questionnaires, record interviews , and field diaries based on observation.

Conclusions:
The pupils liked to visit Me&MyCity and they got experience of working life skills. They liked the profession they had chosen even so much that they would chose it again the next time.

Keywords:

Curriculum, working skills, entrepreneurship education, teaching method.