Over the last 5 years, Celebrate EDU has been creating and developing high-quality, innovative entrepreneurship education programs for self-advocates with disabilities. The first course we built was The Spark Program, a comprehensive online curriculum made up of personal assessments, video lessons, activities and worksheets that teach entrepreneurship using a students’ personal interests.
The Spark Program was built with the goal of helping each self-advocate turn their interests and strengths into a business. Our partners shared that many students are using The Spark Program to gain skills that are preparing them for employment, not necessarily just launching a business.
With this new information, we separated The Spark Program into 3 learning paths:
Explore, Create, and Develop.
EXPLORE:
This teaches all of the key concepts, vocabulary, and basic elements of business and entrepreneurship. We recommend that every Spark student participate in ALL of these lessons. Students who are comfortable with these concepts and want to learn more are encouraged to try out the Create lessons.
Approximate time: 6 hours
CREATE:
This is a great way to experience The Spark Program. Students develop their own individual business idea, work through the basic steps of starting a business, and produce a complete Spark Canvas (preliminary business plan). They also practice sharing their business idea with others and receive a 12-document E-portfolio. This is a full Spark Program experience without the in-depth work required in Develop.
Approximate time: 13 hours
DEVELOP:
This is the most comprehensive Spark Program. Students complete all of what is included in Explore and Create and also dive deeper into subjects like Customer Demographics and Revenue & Pricing. Students are on the path to developing a solid business plan.
Approximate time: 15 hours 30 minutes