Preparing students for future world of work “The business courses not only prepare you for the business world, but create fundamental skills needed for any career.”
-Grace Still, Grade 12
Pickering College’s Global Leadership Program (GLP) prepares students with the skills and agility to respond to whatever the future holds, including an ever-changing job landscape. For students in Senior School, the school offers a complete business stream that integrates seamlessly with the Global Leadership Program, beginning with an introduction to business in Grade 9 and progressing through courses including economics, accounting, entrepreneurship and international business. 28
“Starting in Grade 9, it’s a lot of creative and innovative thinking, and a huge part of it is working in groups and realizing each other’s strengths and how to work with weaknesses,” says Ian Johnston, Senior School faculty who teaches the introduction to business course. In addition, students are given a taste of what is to come in the later grades, delving into entrepreneurship, personal finance, and financial literacy. “We concentrate more on personal finance, but I think it’s a building block to financial planning and accounting for the higher courses, and then we focus on the functions of the different areas within a business,” Johnston says. The culminating project for the Global Leadership Program in Grade 9, Puma’s Den, stemmed from a project that was running in the introduction to business course. Now, all Grade 9 students use the I-Think tools (developed by the Rotman School of Management) to create and prototype alternative ideas for sustainable products as part of the GLP, regardless of whether or not they are enrolled in the business course. Building on what they have learned in Grade 9, students can then take a course
in entrepreneurship which helps to further develop their presentation and communication skills. “Entrepreneurship opens their eyes to how businesses and other ventures come about and the type of people that entrepreneurs are—they are very positive people in that they are open to ideas and can recognize opportunities,” says Marc de la Bastide, Senior School faculty. In entrepreneurship, students learn how to plan when they have an idea and get funding for it through the development of a business plan, a skill that will serve them well whether they monetize an idea themselves or invest in someone else’s business venture. By Grade 12, students can then take their knowledge and entrepreneurial spirit to the next level in the school’s international business course. “I think with all of the integration of the I-Think tools they come away with amazing problem-solving skills,” says Josh Armstrong, Senior School faculty. “They understand international trade, free trade and the markets and the different cultural norms in a way that they wouldn’t have, had they not taken the course
