Image: HAK Schärding
You need a feeling for the right moment. If you act cleverly in the truest sense of the word, you can increase your credit step by step. We are talking about the stock exchange, the place where money is invested in companies and bet on rising – or falling – prices. As part of the OÖN-Börsespiel in cooperation with the Raiffeisenbank Oberösterreich, young and old can put their market skills to the test online in a playful way until March 22nd.
As in previous years, numerous Innviertler school classes are competing again this year and fighting for victory. This also applies to the students of the 3BK of the Schärding Commercial Academy, who compete in the individual ranking. “For young people, economic processes are always very abstract at first,” explains Simone Humer. The HAK teacher supervises the Schärdinger class as part of the subject “Business Training and Project Management”. “The stock market game is a great starting point where you can illustrate things well and combine theory with practice,” says Humer. But it is also the incentive to progress in the rankings that spurs youngsters on. “In the meantime, an internal competition has also developed among the students,” says the teacher happily. “Every morning when the stock exchanges open, they look at the prices and how their portfolio has developed compared to the previous day.”
Good preparation
“The idea of competition is definitely an additional motivation,” agrees Susanne Deschberger, who teaches at the commercial academy in Ried. The school has been offering the training focus “Finance and Risk Management” for almost ten years. The current first year group plays together in the class ranking for victory. “At the beginning of each lesson, two students present the depot development. They explain why they decided to buy or sell as a group,” says Deschberger. The teacher sees the crux of the stock market game in the short term. “When trading stocks, you have to think long-term in real life. The stock market game is about generating as much income as possible in a short period of time.” Nevertheless, the competition is good preparation for “real” life. “The students learn a great deal from it. And they are also interested in it, because sooner or later the topic of financing will come up to everyone.”
According to Simone Humer, a lot of experience can be gained in the game, the pressure is not so great – in contrast to the learning effect: “The shyness of abstract topics decreases through the playful lesson design. It should encourage the students to dare to do something. It’s easier when you have the knowledge.”
Source: Nachrichten
