Abstract:

Educators, all over the world, have always wanted to try new pedagogical approaches, new methods of teaching, new tools and technologies. With the advent of the digitalization, educators have also started to use simulators in order to better prepare the students as these simulate real working environments helping the student to experiment and feel a real world of work in a controlled environment, before entering the real world. Among the simulators, we would like to refer, in particular, the business simulations. These concern the (re)creation of the business environment of a company where students perform all tasks that they are suppose to do in the real world. These business environments enable students to develop and improve their skills, especially soft skills, such as critical thinking, teamwork, work under pressure, writing communication and oral communication. Usually, these are used in curricular units related with business, management, accounting and similar. In this work, we will present all the business simulations being used in higher education in Portugal. We will also present the main aspects of each one, pointing out the common and different aspects among them.

Keywords:

Business Simulation, Higher Education, Portugal.