Entrepreneurship and Interdisciplinary School Projects of Vulnerable Students in Santiago de Chile: Experiences from the “123 Emprender” Program

Abstract

Currently, to learn entrepreneurial skills, economic and financial literacy is relevant to understand the globalized world. In this way, around the world various programs are being developed to support the learning process of relevant knowledge and skills. Therefore, financial and entrepreneurial education is being added to different curricular programs from elementary schools to universities, aimed at developing basic skills to survive in this increasingly complex world. From the Center of Excellence in Economic Psychology and Consumption (CEPEC), economic literacy and entrepreneurship have been taught to schoolchildren through the methodology of interdisciplinary classroom projects, where multidisciplinary pedagogical interests and school interests are articu- lated through a central axis. The second version of the program, “Teaching to Teach: Economics and Entrepreneurship,” for students between 11 and 14 years old, was cre - ated in 2016 in conjunction with Juega+, and sought to promote financial knowledge as well as entrepreneurial skills in children, which are developed through a social entrepre - neurship project. To evaluate the experience of this program descriptive-type qualitative research has been carried out through six focus groups, one for each participating school, whose general objective was to describe the experience of the participants of the “123 emprender” program, t he results obtained show acceptance, enthusiasm and enjoyment to this new form of learning. In addition, students show an incorporation of economic and financial concepts; they give relevance to the collaborative work, among other skills .