As a provider of digital curriculum, high school business teachers often approach us about educational resources they can use to teach their business education courses.
Though iCEV offers a comprehensive, engaging curriculum covering important areas like professionalism, entrepreneurship, and management, it’s not the right fit for every teacher.
Depending on your course and students, other business education programs might work better for you.
To help you choose the business education resource that best fits the needs of your students, we’ve created a list of four of the best options available on the market today:
- Wharton Global Youth Program
- BusinessU
- Money Instructor
- Gavin Middleton on Teachers Pay Teachers
We’ve divided each resource based on its specific lessons or modules, its cost, and its intended purpose.
After reading this article, you’ll have a better grasp on each of these resources, and will be able to choose the ones most beneficial to your business education courses.
1. Wharton Global Youth Program
The Wharton Global Youth Program is an educational initiative created by the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
The Wharton Global Youth Program is filled with business-centered content focused on helping high school-level students better grasp topics like career readiness, personal finance, and entrepreneurship.
What Business Topics are Included?
With hundreds of articles, videos, podcasts, and lesson plans, Wharton can serve as a good source of content for high school teachers looking to help their students better understand specific business concepts like:
- Accounting
- Management
- Marketing
- International Business
- Economics
How Much Does it Cost?
Wharton offers many free resources to teachers and students through the Global Youth Program website.
Students can also choose to participate in a variety of high school programs online or in person during the summer at a separate cost.
What is its Intended Purpose?
Wharton's resources are intended for secondary education teachers looking for basic material to help them teach business courses. However, anyone looking to gain insight into the business process might learn something from their modules and lesson plans.
If you’re a high school teacher looking for basic, supplemental learning material to teach your students business concepts, Wharton Global Youth Program resources may be a good fit for you.
2. BusinessU
BusinessU is a digital curriculum designed to help high school teachers provide thorough, structured business education for their students.
BusinessU divides its subjects into courses that it offers individually. Each of these courses has enough material to fill an entire semester on its own.
In many ways, BusinessU is similar to iCEV. However, iCEV focuses on providing a comprehensive business education curriculum that teaches a wide range of concepts, while BusinessU’s turn-key solutions center on maintaining specific course lengths and fixed structures.
What Business Topics are Included?
BusinessU has hundreds of hours of business-centric content designed to help high school students gain a thorough grasp on important topics that aspiring entrepreneurs need to know. Some specific courses include:
- Principles of Marketing
- Personal Finance
- Intro to Business
- Principles of Entrepreneurship
How Much Does it Cost?
BusinessU’s pricing information is unavailable on their website. Contact a BusinessU sales representative to find out their membership costs.
What is its Intended Purpose?
BusinessU is intended to be used as a full-fledged digital curriculum for high school teachers to teach business. BusinessU can even stand on its own as a “plug and play” curriculum where students use the program independently to teach themselves the material.
If you’re a high school business teacher looking for a highly structured digital curriculum that can teach your students important business concepts, then BusinessU is probably a solid choice for you.
3. Money Instructor
Money Instructor is an online learning organization where teachers can access business-focused educational resources like lesson plans, worksheets, activities, games, and informative articles.
Money Instructor caters to a broad audience, providing easy-to-learn material that can be used to teach both adult and child learners skills ranging from resume writing to basic money counting.
What Business Topics are Included?
By signing up for a Money Instructor membership, educators can gain access to valuable supplemental content that focuses heavily on teaching students the basics of earning and handling money, with lessons that cover topics like:
- Budgeting
- Career Planning
- Investing
- Economics
- Basic Money Math
- Paying Taxes
How Much Does it Cost?
The cost of Money Instructor is about $30-$50 per year depending on membership level.
What is its Intended Purpose?
Money Instructor is intended to provide educators with learning resources they can use to teach their students the basics of finance and business. Though much of its material is aimed at the K-12 space, everyone from college instructors to adult educators to financial advisors have used its lesson plans, activities, and articles.
If you’re looking for supplemental material to help educate students of any age range on practical finance, career skills, and other money-centric topics, then Money Instructor might be a good fit for you.
4. Gavin Middleton (on Teachers Pay Teachers)
Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) is an online marketplace that sells millions of educational resources for almost any age range, PreK to adult education.
Gavin Middleton is one of the most well-known and reputable vendors on Teachers Pay Teachers, selling more than 200 products, dozens of which are business or IT-centered lessons, activities, and media bundles.
What Business Topics are Included?
Depending on your needs, you could either buy individual lessons from Gavin Middleton on TpT, or larger bundles. The lesson and activity products are generally lighter, more focused, and less expensive than the bundles, able to be cherry-picked to suit your classroom’s needs. Some individual business lessons and activities include:
- Business Plan Activity
- Marketing Lesson: Logos Advertising Business
- Business Lesson: E-Commerce Marketing
- Analyzing Commercials Activity
- Product Placement Lesson
The bundles are composed of groups of lesson plans and activities for teachers who need a greater amount of business-centric material to draw from. Some bundles include:
- Marketing Bundle Updated 2021
- Business Lessons Ultimate Bundle
- Computers Course Updated 2021
- Google Drive Lessons & Activities Bundle
How Much Does it Cost?
The cost of Gavin Middleton’s resources varies by product, with some individual lessons being less than $4 and some bundles hovering around $135.
What is its Intended Purpose?
Gavin Middleton’s individual activities and lessons would be useful supplements to high school or adult education teachers looking for focused content pieces to teach their students specific business concepts.
His larger lesson bundles are likely intended for teachers who want an entire semester’s worth of business material with which to educate their students.
If you’re looking for a few lesson plans or activities to better teach your students business concepts, then Gavin Middleton’s individual products might suit your needs.
If you want an entire semester’s worth of content you can use to fill your business course, then Gavin Middleton’s bundles might be a better fit for you.
Which High School Business Education Resource is Right for You?
Depending on the nature of your course and the age of the students you teach, one of these resources might suit your needs better than the others.
If you need light, supplemental activities and lessons to help instruct your students on specific business-related topics like marketing or accounting, then Wharton Global Youth Program lessons, Money Instructor, and Gavin Middleton’s individual products may be good choices to reinforce your course.
If you’re looking for a more structured, in-depth business education curriculum to teach your students more completely, look into trying out BusinessU or some of Gavin Middleton’s larger bundles on Teachers Pay Teachers.
However, if you’re like many business teachers, you need a comprehensive curriculum that teaches more than just business fundamentals. You likely need to explore career readiness and digital literacy skills as well, which none of these other options quite do.
If that’s the case, consider iCEV, a full-fledged curriculum designed to instruct your students on a wide range of business subjects.
If iCEV sounds like it could be a good fit for your needs, check out the business curriculum page to see if it's a good fit for your program:
