A key element of our Business, Administration and Information Technology course is offering students opportunities to act out the role of working consultants/experts.

The Dealing Room simulation complements this approach very well, with students contracted to be a fund management team managing investment portfolios on behalf of their clients.

The game also supports the External Influences and Ethical Business aspects of the Curriculum for Excellence.  Focusing on Political, Social and Environmental factors, students scanned the news stories to see if they could spot examples of external factors in the game scenario.    They then aimed to classify the factors, and analyse what the positive or negative impacts on the businesses might be. 

The simulation also links well with the section of the course where students are invited to write up a report on their chosen company, which includes an investigation into the company’s Marketing effectiveness, an Evaluation of Research Sources and Analysis and Interpretation of Evidence.    If time permits, students can also use the skills they learned in the game to do a PESTEC analysis on their chosen business

We think there is further scope to use Dealing Room to develop skills and engagement, for example, asking students to look at businesses performance and their own performance in managing their portfolios.  

Dealing Room provided a very positive experience for the students and scored highly with students for Satisfaction and Challenge in the end-of-course student survey.

John Burns, Business Education Teacher