WHY “SHAPING THE ECONOMY”?

In our society, each individual assumes a variety of roles over the course of their life. In terms of the economy, these roles include consumer, employee, and economic stakeholder. When these roles are properly reflected and proactively shaped, a social market economy gives all citizens the opportunity to develop in line with their own expectations and realize their own ideas while harnessing their skills and potential for both their own benefit and that of others. If people are to understand the market economy and use it to develop their ideas, it is vital that they gain a rudimentary economic education and acquire the ability to make economic judgments.

Our aim is to illustrate the strengths of our economic system, particularly its flexibility, while promoting the ability to form judgments and (entrepreneurial) independence. Being independent doesn’t necessarily mean starting your own business. Even as an employee, an independent working style that involves personal initiative is beneficial both to the individual and the company they work for, as is the chance to influence the workplace. With this in mind, we support entrepreneurial education.

In schools, there are currently too few opportunities to acquire economic competencies. Although economic issues are firmly anchored in the majority of curricula, very little time is often accorded to them. Many teachers are not sufficiently well trained in economics teaching and therefore often use their lessons to focus on other topics. What’s more, the many teaching materials provided by companies and industry associations are suspected of being tendentious and, for example, presenting a one-sided view from the employers’ camp. We, on the other hand, develop our materials as an economically independent and politically neutral private foundation. In school careers guidance, the idea of independence is usually completely overlooked. In particular, a desire to get involved and help shape the economy is, for no good reason, marginalized. We develop materials designed to tackle this problem, too.