With the winter semester of 2026/27, a new curriculum will come into force for the five-semester master’s program in business education, which will place even greater emphasis on the breadth of business and economics, accounting, business informatics and pedagogical-didactic skills.
The press: On a ten-point scale: How profound is the economic knowledge of Austrian youth (0 = not at all/10 = excellent)?
Bettina Fuhrmann: On average around 6, but that doesn’t say much. Our studies of 14- and 18-year-olds show, like the PISA results on financial literacy: There are few who achieve very high levels, and more who have very low levels – too low to competently meet even simple daily economic challenges. The majority of young people lie in between. One thing is clear: Most young people want more business and financial education lessons.
There are numerous empirical findings on this. With the PISA Financial Literacy Study, we have internationally comparable results for 15-year-olds. At the Institute for Business Education at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) we have been conducting intensive research in the area of business and financial education for over ten years. Our results not only show the level of economic knowledge in different age groups, but also attitudes and behavior as well as factors influencing these variables. And in all studies we see the concerns of young people when they do not feel well enough prepared for the economic challenges in the time after school and a strong vote for more business and financial education lessons – as is the case every year in the Ö3 youth study.
What contribution can business education make to increasing economic knowledge?
An essential one. Because it is the scientific discipline that deals intensively with questions of business and vocational training. It affects us all, because we all do business and have a job. Our graduates have completed a master’s degree in economics and social sciences. They are not only excellently trained in specialist science, but also in pedagogy, business didactics and educational science. These strengths will be further expanded in our new curriculum, which will be implemented starting next fall. As a study program, business education is truly unique: What other course of study deals not only with questions of general business and financial education, business administration, economics, accounting and business information technology, but also with educational science and the didactic preparation of this content?
But only young people who attend a relevant BHS experience business educators.
At least there, but also in secondary vocational schools, at vocational schools and in more and more other types of schools, as well as in adult education, especially in further in-company training. Business educators can be employed wherever business and financial education needs to be promoted.
What career prospects does the course open up?
At least there. Also in secondary vocational schools, vocational schools and more and more other types of schools as well as in adult education, such as in-company further training. They can be used anywhere where economic and financial education needs to be promoted.
What distinguishes studying business education from a traditional business degree?
First of all, the didactic and educational science training, through which the students can structure complex content well, visualize it and make it clear and tangible with realistic examples. In addition, there is strong social skills. Due to their professional breadth, business educators are generalists, which is highly valued in many professions. In the new curriculum, we have therefore placed particular emphasis on strengthening this subject-specific breadth right at the beginning of the course and then deepening it further through subject-didactic training. Another important difference is the strong practical relevance: a compulsory school phase allows students to try out real teaching and learning situations at an early stage.
How can you be sure that business educators are not “second-class economists”?
We don’t have this worry because our graduates have a very well-founded understanding of economic content and considerable contextual knowledge. It’s no wonder that most of our students find a job before completing their studies, and the others find a job immediately afterwards.
Bettina Fuhrmann Martin Jordan
What skills should business education students have?
Since business education is a master’s program at WU, relevant preliminary studies are required in which the basics of economics and/or law have already been taught. In addition, students should have a great interest in economic topics and how they are communicated and enjoy working with people. Communicative skills, the willingness to present complex content in an understandable manner, and a high level of ability to reflect are also particularly important. After all, it’s not just about economic knowledge, but also about its didactic transfer in different contexts.
How has studying changed in recent years?
At its core, it has always been about understanding economic topics, preparing them didactically and thus promoting understanding and enthusiasm for economic content and connections. What has changed, however, is the increasing thematic breadth, which takes both vocational and general business education into account, a greater diversity in teaching/learning methods and the media used, and the consideration of digitalization and the widespread use of AI in business. That’s why we’re including more and more experts and practitioners in our studies, be it in the area of economics and economic research, in the area of digitalization or in the numerous subject areas of financial education.
How will AI change education and training?
AI will support teaching and learning if you reflect on it, use it consciously and know its limitations. Many essential educational processes will continue to require well-trained educators who not only stimulate learning processes, but also support learners with sensitivity and empathy in further developing their personalities.
Is business education sometimes taught too much from a business perspective? How neutral can economics lessons actually be?
Any one-sided perspective makes it difficult to understand the economy holistically. In commercial training, it is obvious to often wear corporate glasses in business administration lessons. But here too, many economic topics are viewed from other perspectives – even more so in the new curriculum. But business education also falls short if it is just consumer education. Economic education takes into account different perspectives on the economy, economic thinking and action. It is not neutral in that – like other teaching – it is oriented towards overarching goals such as the goal of promoting people’s maturity and selects content accordingly and formulates concrete teaching goals. It should not and must not indoctrinate, but should enable people to form their own well-founded opinions based on specialist knowledge and empirical evidence.
Bettina Fuhrmann Clemens Fabry
What current research topics are concerned with business education?
The range of topics is large. Since the economy is constantly changing, new questions, hypotheses and challenges arise for research in business and vocational education. At WU, we are constantly dealing with business didactic issues and the further development of lesson planning and implementation. We have also just published a new textbook on this: “Teaching Economics with Concept”, published by wbv / UTB Verlag. In addition, we are known far beyond Austria’s borders for our research in the field of economic and financial education through several, some of them international, projects. This area of research has been further strengthened through the founding of the WU Competence Center for Financial Education, in which 16 WU professors from very different disciplines are already involved.
WWhat do your graduates say about their studies?
This is constantly examined at WU in order to check and ensure the quality of studies. We are very pleased that study satisfaction and the recommendation rate are also very high at the end of the course and afterwards. Not only that: almost every year our teachers receive teaching awards in the categories “Innovative Teaching” and “Excellent Teaching”, which underlines the high quality of the teaching in the course.
