The best way to learn is with daily practice. For this reason, in parallel to the Saló de l’Ensenyament, a new edition of the International Fair of Simulated Companies is being held -from today until Friday in Montjuïc.
The event has the participation of 40 national and international simulated companies. “Countries such as Luxembourg, Brazil, Belgium, Italy and Bulgaria visit us, with centers that also apply business simulation, and present
the simulated companies of their Vocational Training institutes and centers. Here the students buy, sell and do business as if they were in a normal, multi-sector fair”, explains Maria Benaiges, head of International Projects and Communication at the Fundació Inform, the event’s driving force.
The simulated companies are based on the Learning by doing methodology, which consists of creating a simulated company to train in administrative and business management tasks. “We facilitate learning and training in real situations, tasks and processes. It is an active methodology with a clearly professional component. It promotes training through experience: learning by doing, learning by working”, adds the head of Fundació Inform.
According to data from the entity, in Spain there are some 600 simulated companies belonging to 500 Vocational Training centers that apply company simulation in their medium and higher grade training cycles. The forecast is that around 5,000 visitors will attend the fair.
During the Fair, the simulated companies show their products live and carry out all the usual commercial activities of a multi-sector fair. The simulated companies function like a real company: they buy and sell their products, have business relationships with other simulated companies around the world, book operations, control treasury, pay taxes, manage human resources and the marketing department, etc. The students come into direct contact with customers and carry out the commercial and marketing actions planned in their simulated company.
The Francisco Tomás y Valiente Secondary Education Institute, in Madrid, is one of the centers that uses simulation as a pedagogical tool. It has two simulated companies where students from the Administration and Finance family carry out real operations in a simulated environment, working with other simulated companies from Spain and the rest of Europe. “The passage of the students through the simulated companies means a first approach to the professional world”, emphasize the heads of the IES Francisco Tomás y Valiente.
The Fundació Inform is an entity that promotes and manages training projects based on the methodology of business simulation. Since 1987, the Simulation of Companies with Educational Purposes Program has been applied in educational centers in Spain and they are the international representatives of this Program in the worldwide network of simulated companies Pen Worldwide.
