High school students gain practical experience in business at Experience ESEG Negócios.

The 3rd year students of High School at Colégio Etapa They had the opportunity to experience firsthand a rich immersion activity in the world of Business during the Experience ESEG, promoted by Etapa Group College last Saturday, April 20th. 

In this immersive experience, the 62 students present, divided into ten groups, were challenged to create a theory of a functional company. Divided into groups of four or more, the students from the College had to develop six essential pillars of business administration: Marketing, Human Resources, Manufacturing, Fixed Assets, Supplies, and Finance.

Throughout the day, the students had to act as real managers, running their businesses from an online simulation platform. In this environment, they were responsible for managing the company's entire cash flow, taking out loans, paying bills, covering costs, managing employees, analyzing the competition, and much more. The simulation was set up within a comprehensive plan, with the goal of raising money, developing the company, making decisions, and avoiding bankruptcy or debt.

The first part of the day focused on understanding the platform and its functionality. Therefore, students were encouraged to participate in a business simulation test, where they could complete exercises, make administrative decisions, and ultimately receive an average score based on their correct and incorrect answers.

This moment was important for the students to understand management concepts, what types of decisions make sense or not in the field, to clarify doubts, and to receive feedback on how to improve workflow and decision-making.

Simone Ferreira Gonçalves da Mota, coordinator of Colégio Etapa, was pleased with the students' performance in the first phase. For her, the special aspect of the day was not only the teaching about administration itself, but also the various behavioral and technical skills developed throughout the activity. "They are involved in an activity where they are entrepreneurs and owners of a company. Because of this, they will face problems that demand quick, assertive solutions and teamwork. It's not easy! So, this initiative develops skills that are necessary in real life," she commented.

According to the educator, the behavioral skills that stood out the most were resilience and teamwork: “They understood that working in a group has a reaction. There was a problem, consequently there is an action to be taken. This reaction generates consequences. They understood that it is fundamental to listen to each other. And that, often, the ego will need to be suppressed, because someone will have a better idea. This understanding is important because cooperation is very present in the professional day-to-day,” she adds.

EXPERIENCE ESEG BUSINESS “FOR REAL”

After understanding how decisions affect the success of various areas of the company, the students were separated into rooms to, during the following hours, go through the other rounds of the challenge, in which it was necessary to discuss the best strategies for each business. In each round, it was possible to verify the profit obtained by the company from the defined strategies and the decisions made.

After the final round, the students then had the chance to simulate an annual results presentation meeting for the Advisory Board, composed of professors Dimas Ferreira (academic director of ESEG), Edgard Rodrigues, Fabiana Bortoleto, Johnny Mendes, José Guilherme de Campos (coordinator of the Administration course), and Tobias Parente. The professors were paired with students from the final years of the ESEG Administration program: Bianca Souza, Caio Barreto, Christian Xavier, Eduardo Abdo, Giovanna Lima, and Henrique Fonseca (graduate).

Like real business owners and area directors within the fictional companies they created, the students needed to present the established strategies and the results obtained in their businesses in order to defend their operations.

At the end of the presentation round, each group received a grade that varied between profit generation and case presentation. The top two groups were awarded scholarships by ESEG, with 80% going to the first-place group and 70% to the second-place group, both valid for the entire duration of their undergraduate studies at the Faculdade do Grupo Etapa, starting in the first semester of 2025.

When asked about the strategy used, the students from the winning group responded: “To summarize, the strategy was trust, perseverance, and teamwork. We trusted each other. And we achieved a good financial result. We agreed not to have a good financial return at the beginning, but to invest heavily and, as a result, have a boom in our hands. And it worked!”, highlighted Guilherme Ribeiro Batista Santoni Borges, a student from Colégio Etapa.

In addition to the awards and certifications provided, the event was an excellent opportunity for students to learn about the business world in practice. This gave them a clearer understanding of how the market works in their field, which will help them make informed career decisions.

According to Professor Dr. Tobias Parente, a lecturer in the Business Administration course at ESEG, hands-on experiences like this are essential for those going through a career decision-making process, especially for those who wish to pursue a career in Business Administration.

“In an activity like this, they learn that an idea that didn't seem so good can work; that the market changes very quickly, so they need to deal with uncertainty. In this experience, it was possible to identify who has that common personality of those who start studying Administration. It's what we call a generalist professional: the person likes many things, such as finance, management, marketing, production… In this area, this desire to learn about different things is fundamental,” the professor analyzed.

The experience wasn't only enriching for the high school students. For the teachers and coordinators involved, it was also an opportunity to connect with the generation that will soon be in college, understand their strengths, and learn how to work with these young people in the classroom. For the ESEG Business Administration students involved in the activity, it was a valuable opportunity to be on the other side of the academic world. It was a moment to evaluate, rather than be evaluated, putting all their knowledge into practice and thus exercising their own performance in the market.

“Because I had this business simulation course throughout the program, I was able to evaluate the situation from another angle. I could see the people's data and how they made those decisions,” says Bianca Souza, a seventh-semester Business Administration student and current analyst at Braskem. “I can say that this activity added to my training because I was able to reconcile everything I saw here at the University and in my internship. By verifying everything that made sense, I was able to do a detailed analysis of each company,” she added.