Final report - European Commission - Europa

CARTOON “BOULE ET BILL CREENT UNE ENTREPRISE”Jean Schram, Ministry of Education, Luxembourg“Boule et Bill create an enterprise” is an original cartoon featuring the well known heroes Boule and his dog Bill byJean Roba.In 1986, the association of young “chefs d’entreprise” offered to the Ministry of education the right to use an especiallywritten and designed comic related to the world of entrepreneurship in primary school.In this episode Boule and his friends create an enterprise: Boule needs some ready money to buy a new bicycle. Theonly way to earn money is to produce and to sell some goods. The child orientated cartoon explains the steps leadingto the creation and function of an enterprise: start-up capital raising, investment, design of the goods, productionof the goods, market and necessity of good communication, diversification of the production.The elementary mechanisms of the financial activities of an enterprise in order to survive are also introduced.Finally, after the assembly of shareholders, Boule and Bill and their comrades get their reward and can enjoy theirholidays.The cartoon thus introduces the reader to the basic vocabulary of economics and finance; also, the mechanisms of a(small) enterprise are explained. By doing so, the pupils are acquainted with the function of their surrounding businessworld.The cartoon is part of the official programme in French for the pupils of 6th classes in primary school in Luxembourg.Each of the about 6,000 pupils in the 6th primary class learns about entrepreneurship during her or his primary education,in a way that is attractive to them.The same theme appears also in mathematics in the 6th class, where the children solve some problems in the contextof the Boule et Bill cartoon: especially they follow the financial transactions of the enterprise through the productiveprocess, from capital raising to the final (financial) output.The cartoon and the treatment of the theme in maths are part of a strategic action to trigger changing mindsets ineducation, to revalue the image of the entrepreneur and to enhance the orientation of the pupils leaving primaryschool at the end of the 6th classes.This cartoon has developed inspired some classes to imitate Boule et Bill and to get a mini-enterprise running in theirown school as a school project, some of which have been awarded a price by the Minister of Education as good pedagogicalproject.Finally, the department of primary school of the Ministry of Education is represented at the Conseil d’administrationdes “Jonk Entrepreneuren” (young entrepreneurs) and so completes the strategic actions taken to promote entrepreneurshipin primary school.27Entrepreneurship Education in Europe: Fostering Entrepreneurial Mindsets through Education and Learning