Program Description 
For more than thirty years Learning About Business (LAB) has provided an award-winning, total-immersion, interactive business experience for high school students on the Lake Erie College campus in Painesville, Ohio.  LAB students get a foretaste of college life away from home during LAB week.

The hands-on free-enterprise program exposes students to all aspects of the business world. In one short week participants form a virtual global company, develop a management team and structure, create and execute a business plan that includes production, marketing, and sales goals.  To be successful they have to deliver results to shareholders.

During LAB week teams make significant product development, marketing, sales, and management decisions. Some of the decisions they face include supply, safety, pricing, and ethical issues, plus catastrophic events. The virtual businesses are modeled – and their success, or failure, measured – using a dynamic, sophisticated, computer-simulated marketplace to reflect each of these decisions in their quarterly stock price.

To connect LAB’s principles and activities to the real business world (for-profit or non-profit), more than one hundred savvy and successful community business volunteers share their talent and knowledge as presenters, panelists, mentors, coaches, and advisers.

LAB also introduces students to life skills to build on in the future in becoming successful business leaders in the global marketplace.

Population Served
From more than 100 applicants each year, LAB selects approximately 60 high school students entering their junior or senior year. The program recruits from public and private high schools in Lake, Geauga, Ashtabula, and Cuyahoga counties. With no requirement that participants reside in Northeastern Ohio, occasionally LAB students have come from other states and foreign countries.

Goals of the program

1. Teach business skills, economics, global awareness and financial literacy through an interactive and engaging learning experience.
2. Provide the opportunity to develop “soft skills” such as interpersonal communications, strategic thinking, creative problem-solving, and leadership.
3. Provide an understanding of the various aspects of business, including marketing, production, finance, management, and human resources, allowing students to make more informed career choices.
4. Expose a variety of career opportunities, from entrepreneurial ventures to Fortune 500 companies in both the manufacturing and service sectors.
5. Connect students with Northeast Ohio business resources to provide opportunities for future internships, employment and collaboration.