The ILO in collaboration with the Ministry of National Education and the Provincial Education Office of East Java conducted an entrepreneurship pilot project at vocational schools and high schools for six months (June-December) in 2013. The project covered five districts: Lamongan, Blitar, Kediri, Bangkalan dan Banyuwangi. More than 10,000 students in year 10 benefited from this pilot project, while approximately 132 entrepreneurship teachers at 62 vocational and high schools were trained using the ILO’s Know about Business (KAB) Start Up and Go Modules.

These modules provide new participatory and interactive approaches to teaching entrepreneurship skills that encourage students to be more active and involved in the learning process. These new approaches also utilize the current information technology in the form of social media that play a greater role in the students’ lives.

One of the teachers who benefited from the training is Dyah Ayu Endrianingsih, an entrepreneurship teacher at the public vocational school (SMKN) I Blitar. After participating in the training of trainers of KAB Start Up and Go for five days, she joined the Entrepreneurship Teachers Forum in Blitar with 42 other teachers. The forum provides a venue for the trained teachers to share ideas and exchange experiences in providing more effective and interactive entrepreneurship lessons and to build a stronger entrepreneurial spirit into the students. Here is the story of Dyah:

 

“I have been a teacher for 18 years, and I have been teaching entrepreneurship to students of SMKN I Blitar. Before participating in the KAB Start Up and Go training, I taught my students in a traditional way and applied a teacher-centred learning experience. I explained from textbooks and the students listened passively. As a result, my students often got bored and I found them falling asleep in the class. They did not get inspired with the entrepreneurship issue.

However, it all changed when I participated in the ILO’s KAB Start Up and Go training and applied the new teaching methods. I learnt new participatory teaching techniques that actively involve students in the learning process through presentation, discussion, working group, case study, individual assignment, guest lecturers and so forth. And, the most innovative way that I learnt to be connect with students was the utilization of audio-visual technology.

The modules are equipped with inspiring entrepreneurship stories on DVD. Originally from South Africa, the films have been adapted to the Indonesian context. Thus, as part of the active learning process, videos are screened during the class session, followed by interactive discussions with students as they learn from actual business development processes through the videos.

As a result, my entrepreneurship students who previously were silent and passive are now active and more enthusiastic. They ask questions, are involved in the discussions and they even come earlier to the class and look forward to learning entrepreneurship. My students are now anxiously waiting for my class as they are curious what other games that they are going to role-play or what other movies that they are going to view.
 

One of my students told me that ‘It is easier now to understand issues related to entrepreneurship. I can easily remember and apply what I learnt in the class.’ My other student said, ‘I wish we could have entrepreneurship for the whole day and the whole week, not only 45 minutes four times a week’, while the other students, comparing the class before and after the application of the KAB Start Up and Go, exclaimed that the entrepreneurship class after the KAB Start Up and Go was more fascinating and interesting. “No more boredom,” the students said.

The KAB Start Up and Go modules have changed the way I teach my students, and have created a fun and interactive learning process in my classroom. The students are more active, involved and inspired and that is the most important thing for a teacher like me.” (*)