Abstract:

It is recognized that the labor market is changing at a very fast pace. The needed skills for a good professional are shifting quickly from a hard (technical) to a soft approach. One of the possible strategies to educate future professionals and to help youngsters to develop the necessary skills is through the use of business simulation environments. Throughout Europe, some international consortiums are developing projects and dynamizing initiatives aiming to contribute to the above-mentioned objective.

In this paper we present the inputs of several international projects carried out in higher education focusing on teaching methodologies and business simulators.
1. Creative Internprize international project was settled aiming to help students from the creative areas, as it is recognized that these students have a need for further preparation for being successful entrepreneurs. For that, a set of Handbooks for trainers and trainees were developed, and some internships, including the practice in business simulators, were offered in order to help youngsters to develop skills related with management. During the project, it was clear that students from other areas, such as accounting and business could also benefit from the outputs of this project. In this line, the Business Simulation courses from the accounting and administration graduation of Porto Accounting and Business School, which are taught in an experiential learning methodology were studied and some lessons learned.
2. The YBS – Your Business Success international project, which intends mainly to provide digital tools for small entrepreneurs and enterprises and complements the Creative Internprize project, has been giving important contributions to improve the Business Simulation courses.
3. Finally, the ELSE – Eco/logical Learning and Simulation Environments in Higher Education international project, which intends to provide different techniques of education also contributed for a better experiential learning environment, not only for the Business Simulation course, but also for other courses of different areas.

These projects and the lessons learned in each one, constitute a basis for a reflection and discussion about the use of business simulators in education and how trainers and teachers can use them in order to help students to be and remain employable and more competitive. This paper also represents an opportunity to share the constraints and enablers of implementing such a solution.

Keywords:

Creative Internprize Project, ELSE Project, YBS – Your Business Success Project, Experiential Learning, Business Simulation.