Children from rural areas in China put their entrepreneurship skills to the test selling their homemade goods in an online classroom. This ‘Aflatoun Village Network Fair’ event took place in June and was organised by our partner organisation Shanghai Better Education Development Center.
These children are part of Aflatoun’s financial education course, independently developed by Better Education, which aims at raising rural children’s financial business awareness and cultivating their good behavior habits.
Since 2017, when Better Education partnered with the Internet education institution HJ, they have reached 20,000 children directly through the Alfatoun financial education course. The programme has now extended to 400 Chinese primary and secondary schools across the country.
The programme aims at changing traditional education practices by creating an online network curriculum that can be accessed across the country. It also allows small schools in remote areas to enjoy high-quality education resources making learning easier, fairer and more positive.
Children Showcase Entrepreneurship Skills in Online Market
During the Internet market event, the children sold a variety of items including: embroidered pillows, colorful mud animals, decorative paintings and handmade flowers presented in floral bottles.
While the children enjoyed creating the decorative goods, when it came to selling the items—some had cold feet. This is where the teachers stepped in by using good marketing strategies to persuade potential customers.
One teacher convinced a customer to purchase an embroidered pillow by saying: “an embroidered pillow is good for sleep, good sleep is helpful for youth, youth leads to a healthy body and therefore, you need an embroidered pillow.”
After a few practice rounds with the help of teachers, the children opened up — laughing with their customers and communicating confidently and freely. The teachers attributed the success of the market to the entrepreneurial skills the children learned in the Aflatoun programme.
The clients and community members also received the market event well, praising the young entrepreneurs for their creative ideas and strong communication skills.