«Pupils benefit when they are given more responsibility»

What made you decide to have your female students offer workshops for younger pupils?

During my sabbatical at Microsoft in the USA, I realised how backward we are in Switzerland when it comes to the use of digital technologies. My students are preparing for a professional career. It doesn't matter where they go after leaving school, they will be directly or indirectly involved with digitalisation wherever they go. We know from developmental psychology that teenagers are more likely to listen to and learn from their peers than from adults. With this in mind, it seemed sensible to me to have my students organise workshops on digitalisation topics for slightly younger schoolgirls.

How does this fit into the curriculum?

As a school that prepares students for a career in business, we offer the opportunity to gain practical experience of starting a business. In the past, our students had to set up their own small businesses, manufacture products and sell them to their classmates. But this has little to do with the real economy. This project requires my students to engage with other people and help them develop skills for working life.

It is useful for them to learn not only from teachers, but also from other people. Through the start-up network Startfeld in St. Gallen, the students were able to work with other people when planning their workshops. With people who had a smart home start-up or experience in robotics, for example.

The students also used digital channels and professional tools and acquired knowledge about the relevant programmes. They developed a business plan, found ways to advertise their workshops and designed flyers and promotional material.

We founded a company under Swiss law, under whose name the workshops were organised. This gave the students an insight into the relevant laws and the structures required to found such a company.

How did the first series of workshops go?

We started the project two years ago as a pilot project without any funding. My class of 19 schoolgirls was given six months to set up the workshops from scratch. They first had to develop the ideas, get advice from experts and draw up a budget for the materials needed.

They marketed the individual events, wrote hundreds of emails to teachers, held test events and revised the content. The interest was huge: we offered ten workshops over ten weeks and were fully booked after two weeks.

Then came the Covid-19 pandemic, which presented my students with enormous challenges. They had to switch their workshops to an online format and prepare materials to send to schools. Like all of us, they were frustrated during this difficult time when the workshops were not perfect due to technical problems. But we got through it and the students really did a great job.

Two of our classes with a total of 38 students organised workshops for the 2020/2021 school year, which were not easy due to the ongoing pandemic. There were restrictions on the number of students per room and the workshops were different every day. But the students learnt to be flexible, which was a good experience for them.

This school year, we will finally be running the programme as it was originally planned. The workshops will be offered as part of Smartfeld 's regional programme to promote digital education. Interested teachers can book a workshop for their classes with my students.

What do your students take away from this experience?

I received very positive feedback from employers at the beginning of the training programme. The students who took part in the peer-to-peer learning project are much better at dealing with people than those who didn't take part. At the age of 16 or 18, they are already used to talking to adults and have become more confident. They are seen as partners and have acquired the necessary skills to present their work effectively.