Getting a taste: Students try out business ideas and learn by doing

TAKING on the job of president director, general manager or other top positions in a company is not the exclusive privilege of those with years of work under their belts. Young go-getters can experience it, too.



TAKING on the job of president director, general manager or other top positions in a company is not the exclusive privilege of those with years of work under their belts. Young go-getters can experience it, too.

Take the example of tenth grader Fitri Izzati who goes to vocational high school SMKN 8 in South Jakarta.

“I got interested in joining this extracurricular activity because I want to be an entrepreneur someday, so I want to learn as much as I can about it,” Fitri, the president of Ant School Company, told youthspeak at her school.

The Ant School Company is the third business students of SMKN 8 have established under their schools School Company Program (SCP). SCP is an after-school activity which familiarizes students with basic business principles, giving them a chance to run a business and learn from being responsible for the effort’s success or failure.

“This extracurricular is compatible with the education system in our school because we value hands-on experience. It’s also good to develop entrepreneurial attitudes from an early age,” Principal Sugiarto said.

The students of SMKN 8 chose to set up a small café at their school as their main enterprise. To fund their business, they created shares for their teachers and their fellow students to buy. Shares were priced at Rp 10,000.

“We sold 70 shares, so we collected Rp 700,000 and used it as our start-up capital,” said Rahmat Darmawan, who served as chief financial officer at the outset.

He added that the program had given him much better understanding of what it takes to run a business and try to make it profi table.

“We had to learn to analyze opportunities – even the smallest ones – and develop them in order to survive,” said Ihsan Setiawan, who served as president director.

The school’s School Company Program started in 2006. Students who want to participate must present a proposal – a basic business plan – before setting up. At the end of the initiative, the students submit a report about their experience to the club supervisors.

The SCP program is run in collaboration with Prestasi Junior Indonesia (PJI), which is part of Junior Achievement Worldwide. Junior Achievement is an international organization dedicated to
entrepreneurial, business and economic education.

PJI’s director of operations Robert Gardiner said some schools in Indonesia, and others abroad, have set up learn-bydoing programs to train students in business basics.

He said that the program was introduced to complement local education curriculums which do not yet include business materials and practices.

“All you need to succeed in your business is self-confi dence and motivation, then combine those with knowledge,” he advised.

PJI operates in more than 98 countries. They usually run their training programs by setting up
partnerships between the world of business and education. Besides SMKN 8, PJI is also helping
set up a school company program at SMA 24 in South Jakarta, where many students have signed up to try it out.

“It’s interesting, but it’s also confusing at the start. We’re learning to be responsible for our business day in and day out,” Karlina Fauziah said. Her group has set up a warung kejujuran, an honesty stall. They sell many different kinds of food to other students who pay for what they buy using an honor system.

However, fi nance manager Putriana Astuti said, at that moment the business was facing serious problems due to lack of capital.

“Right now it’s frustrating, but we just can’t stop here,” she said, adding they were now trying to sell food and other items by circulating from class to class as a new approach in maintaining their business.

“I hope it can generate better proceeds,” Karlina said.

SMKN 8 and SMA 24 are not the only schools taking advantage of the school company program. Many other schools in Indonesia have come on board, including SMA 70 in Jakarta, SMA 4 Sidoarjo in East Java and SMA 1 Serang in Banten.