Business simulations are widely accepted as an excellent way to give university students, particularly within courses such as business and management, some experience in running a company in a risk-free environment, and to give them the opportunity to put their knowledge from lecture courses into practice. But why do so many universities use them? Thanks to a recent study by the University of Huddersfield, we can see proof of the development of students, both in terms of their business skills and on a personal level.

The study took the form of a questionnaire based on the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship entrepreneurial outcomes, which the participants filled in, both before and after a simulation programme (in this case SimVenture, which has similar learning objectives and structure to the Executive Business Simulation by April Training) was run. The results, though preliminary and only of a small sample, are very promising:

Source: Dr. D Williams, 2010;

Impact of Business Simulation Games in Enterprise Education

This shows that students perceived themselves to have improved in every entrepreneurial area, from being more able to tolerate failure to improved financial analysis. Although there may be some bias, particularly immediately after the simulation, the results seem to show that simulations such as Executive really do benefit students in a tangible and useful way.

Executive focuses on developing these key skills in participants, as well as being an enjoyable way to learn and test out business strategy ideas in a risk-free environment. It is also an online simulation, meaning that it is easily accessed and fast-responding, a real bonus and a unique feature among training simulations. This makes Executive perfect for use as both part of a university or college-level course, and in corporate environments, to give employees and students alike the necessary personal and entrepreneurial skills to succeed in real-life busienss.

Executive is the best-selling business simulation from our range, so we thought that it was time to explain a little bit more about it and what it can do for you.

Executive is a simulation based around the European car industry, that can have up to 9 competing teams in each session of the simulation (often known as leagues). Because multiple leagues can be run at the same time, Executive can be used for any sized group, and we regularly run large-scale projects with 200 or more participants. This is particularly useful when April organise simulation projects to fit in with a university module as part of a business or finance degree.

Companies across the world also find Executive very useful for training and education, and it can be insightful for any employees; from shop-floor workers to senior managers! Our simulation is the perfect way to enhance a course of lectures to make the participants interested in and inspired by the world of business and entrepreneurship. It can increase competency in areas such as marketing, finance, business strategy and team-working, which are all vital skills for any member of an organisation.

Executive is fully customisable with three different modules that can be added in any combination onto the basic simulation. These modules are:

1. the Finance module – more depth into the world of accounting and more decisions relating to shares, gilts and dividends
2. the Operations module – further details to do with workforce management and production
3. the Marketing module – more choices on product and company image as well as marketing strategies.

These options allow for even more flexibility when it comes to our training simulation and allow us to tailor an event especially for you. We can also arrange trainers to come to your organisation to give a demonstration and explain the ideas behind Executive, or we can even train members of your own staff to act as tutors. This has proved very successful in the past, and many universities and industrial companies take advantage of this service as a cost-effective and time-saving solution.

If you would like any more information about Executive, or would like to order any of our simulations, please email us.

Hello and welcome to the April Training blog. Various members of our team and customers will be making posts to tell you all about what’s going on and give you some exciting inside information!

We are dedicated to providing top quality business simulations for both academic and corporate applications across the UK and throughout the world.  April Training has been long established within this field, in fact this year is our 25th Anniversary!!   Based in Cheshire, UK, we provide simulation training for hundreds of establishments, from Manchester University to Aditya Birla and Tata (based in India).  In this blog, we’ll explain a little bit more about what exactly our simulation involves, and how it can be integrated into your training to make an exciting, memorable and knowledge-building activity.

Entrepreneurship and business can be a difficult subject to teach, whether the trainees are students or company employees. Many people view traditional lectures as “dull”, “bland” and “uninspiring”.  Here at April, we our mission is to change all that, by providing exciting, interactive and competitive business learning! You CAN can teach business very effectively with training simulations – a fun and engaging way to learn, and amazingly cost effective.

At April Training our software developers and trainers work together to creating tailored simulation events to suit your individual needs. Our researchers make sure that we have the most current available data to make all our simulations as relevant and realistic as possible.  Executive, Retailer and Entrepreneur are all regularly updated to make sure that they’re full of the latest information and the best tutor and student/trainee feedback.  April Training is dedicated to bringing you the best business simulations available anywhere in the world.