Unlike schools that began to struggle providing distance learning after Covid 19-induced closures, online teaching was not a major problem for Junior Achievement Slovakia.
“We’ve run online teaching for 15 years,” the non-profit organisation’s head, Eva Vargová, says.
Junior Achievement Slovakia has offered various business-related programmes to students and teachers for 30 years; its flagship programme is Applied Economics.
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However, as a result of the pandemic the organisation had to lay-off some employees, deal with funding issues, and help overworked teachers and frustrated pupils.
Vargová argues that student firms, which are set up at schools as part of Applied Economics, have become better, more ecologically aware, and have developed a greater online presence over the past two years.
“We do not create [product] ideas. It’s the students themselves who see a problem in their community, or feel they need to do something for the environment, and come up with a solution,” she says.
Junior Achievement Worldwide has been nominated for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize for its work.
Exam topic: Shopping and Services
Other study materials:
How enterprising Slovaks got the better of the pandemic Read more
Glossary: For students running firms, the environment matters Read more The Spectator College is a programme designed to support the study and teaching of English in Slovakia, as well as to inspire interest in important public issues among young people.
