Students develop essential leadership, professional, functional, and core technology skills through VE’s hands-on, immersive, work-based learning experiences. Over the course of an academic year, teachers become consultants as students work individually, in departments, and as a firm to develop, refine, and implement a business plan.

In order to manage their virtual business, students work in departments to manage day-to-day functions, produce key deliverables, assess growth, make decisions, respond to challenges, and participate in a variety of business-related events and activities, in-person, and through VE’s global marketplace.

VE classrooms break the mold by connecting students around the world, transforming teachers into facilitators, and turning the classroom into a vibrant workplace.

The VE-JV Career Academy is a two-course sequence offering real-world experiences and hands-on learning about technology, business, and careers. Students work individually and as a team to develop technology, problem solving, communication, and critical thinking skills, preparing them for success in high school and beyond.

Technology Applications for Business (7th grade) introduces students to technology projects typically used in the business and professional world that require facility with spreadsheets, presentation software, word-processing, graphics, web design, and social media. Lessons and activities are built around an entrepreneurial theme and include projects such as creating a budget, conducting a break-even analysis, making expense reports, developing newsletters, developing and presenting a business plan, and more.

VE-Junior Ventures (8th grade) challenges students to build on skills from Technology Applications by collaborating with their classmates to launch and manage a business that replicates the functions and demands of real business in both structure and practice. Students take on the roles of employees in a company, work in functional departments of the organization (marketing, sales, human resources, accounting, finance, and IT) and complete department-related work and projects that support the goals of the company.