University - School

The team members of the Institute for Business Education of WU Wien are active in many social and economic fields of action, whereby, due to the thematic focus on teaching and research, the fields of cooperation with initial vocational education and training in Austria, specifically with Section I (General and Vocational Education and Training) in the Federal Ministry for Education, the Vienna Education Directorate as well as the other education directorates and numerous BMHS (e.g. official partner schools) - with a focus on Eastern Austria - are particularly pronounced and diverse.

Based on curricula, textbooks often take on the role of a "hidden curriculum" in everyday teaching. Against this background, the influence of textbook authors from the Institute for Business Education on the school reality for teaching business subjects is extensive and lasting, e.g. Wirtschaftsinformatik HAK IV/V Klarer Fall! by Wolfgang Apfler, Rainer Baier and Harald Hackl.

The close cooperation between the Institute for Business Education at WU Wien and BMHS is also documented by the fact that a large part of the team is involved in continuing education for teachers and, conversely, selected teachers work as lecturers at WU Wien.

University – Economy and Society

Through the specialization "Business Training & Education Management", contacts with continuing education institutions in the business world have developed very positively in recent years; the cooperation with the Raiffeisen Campus is particularly comprehensive and productive.

The financial crisis of the 2000s increasingly focused attention on the question of whether and to what extent the population has sufficient basic knowledge in the areas of financial and economic literacy. In recent years, the ECB, central banks, the Federal Ministry of Finance (e.g. www.finanznavi.gv.at/en - in cooperation with our institute), Sozialpartner, etc. have therefore also attached greater importance to the topic of "financial literacy". The number of international conferences and collaborations on this topic is also increasing continuously.

At WU Wien, the importance of topic of financial education was taken into account with the formation of the WU Center for Financial Education under the direction of Bettina Fuhrmann in September 2023. While the international discussion on financial literacy focuses primarily on basic economic knowledge, the institute also contributes to the economic literacy of various target groups by providing didactic materials on current issues (e.g. "Beware of financial Scams!", "Buy now, pay later - Does that make sense?").

Several members of the Institute for Business Education at WU Wien are active in various functions in the Austrian sub-organization of SIEC-ISBE (The International Society for Business Education). This international perspective is also administered through the numerous EU-TEMPUS and ERASMUS+ projects, which aim to implement e. g. entrepreneurship education in Russia and other transition countries (and beyond).

These examples illustrate that in addition to research and teaching, the Institute for Business Education at WU Wien is committed to the further development of society on many levels.