Students combine business management knowledge with teaching skills and support the student-run company ‘Red Dot Art’ in its further development.
HSRW
How can economic concepts be explained in a way that is easy to understand, and how can entrepreneurial thinking be fostered as early as in everyday school life? This is the question addressed by the interdisciplinary collaborative project ‘Business Meets Education’, which was launched in the winter semester of 2026/2027 at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences under the leadership of Prof. Dr Philipp Schorn. Together with the student-run company ‘Red Dot Art’ from the Liebfrauenschule in Emmerich, led by Sandra Limberg, students on the International Business and Management (BA) and Early Years Education (BA) degree programmes are working to combine economic knowledge with educational approaches in a practical way.
Following the project launch on Tuesday, 6 October 2026 at the Kleve campus of Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences, the first joint meeting took place on Friday, 9 October 2026 at the Liebfrauenschule in Emmerich. There, the students got to know the pupils and learnt about the work of the pupil-run company first-hand. They gained an insight into the existing processes and discussed the young entrepreneurs’ work with them. The university delegation was also welcomed by Headteacher Judith Flegel.
Two disciplines, one shared goal
The cooperation centres on the question of how the pupil-run company can be supported in its further development. The university students take on the role of external advisers. They contribute their respective specialist perspectives, examine business processes and, together with the pupils, develop ideas for future work.
Students on the International Business and Management (BA) programme contribute expertise particularly in the areas of marketing, public relations, product development and business analysis. This includes, for example, analysing income and expenditure, developing marketing ideas or planning sales campaigns.
Students on the Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Early Years Education complement this work with their educational perspective. They help to convey economic concepts in an age-appropriate manner, support learning processes and encourage teamwork, creativity and the children’s active participation. “The project offers the opportunity to combine economic issues with educational perspectives and to apply course content in a specific practical setting. At the same time, students can experience how interdisciplinary collaboration opens up new approaches to problem-solving,” says Prof. Dr Philipp Schorn, project leader at Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences.
Experiencing entrepreneurial thinking in practice
Through working in their own student-run company, pupils gain first-hand experience of business. They grapple with questions that companies also face: What products or ideas do we want to offer? How do we reach our target audience? What income and expenditure will we generate? And how can we organise our work even more effectively?
“This collaboration gives our pupils the opportunity to view their student-run company from new perspectives and to gain a practical understanding of economic relationships. We look forward to developing new ideas together with the students and taking the work of ‘Red Dot Art’ to the next level,” says Sandra Limberg, project leader at Liebfrauenschule and head of the student-run company.
A win-win situation
The project also offers a wide range of learning opportunities for the students. They apply knowledge from their degree programme to a real-world context, gain experience in interdisciplinary collaboration and further develop their consulting, communication and project management skills. At the same time, they learn to present economic concepts in a way that makes them understandable and tangible for children.
The first visit to the Liebfrauenschule was clearly enjoyed by both the students and the school pupils and laid a positive foundation for further collaboration. Over the coming months, the student-run company’s existing activities will be analysed and ideas for products, marketing and public relations will be further developed jointly. The planning and organisation of sales campaigns will also form part of the collaboration. The aim is to support ‘Red Dot Art’ in its development and to raise the profile of the student-run company.
The ‘Business Meets Education’ project demonstrates how interdisciplinary teaching and regional cooperation can work together: students apply their knowledge in practice, whilst pupils discover economic interrelationships and develop their own ideas. This creates a shared learning space from which both the university and the school benefit equally.
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