Course content
Main Lesson where Class 9 pupils start their own craft business, being proactive in learning the skills necessary to launch and run a successful enterprise.
Course Content
Throughout the Main Lesson, Class 9 explore the four P’s:
- Products: gaining valuable insights into choosing the right craft for selling online
- Photographs: understanding their importance, as well as how to design a shoot with props, lighting and editing, specifically for e-commerce platforms like Etsy and social media, such as Instagram.
- Packaging: posting products as well as selling at the annual Spring Fair, the appropriate eco way to deliver the product is looked at.
- Price – ensuring maximum profit within a UK, handmade, ethical market.
- All
- Crafts & Business Studies Main Lesson
- 2024
- 2023
The Class learn about the different forms a company can take, and how to market a business on various platforms such as Amazon, Etsy, eBay and Folksy, as well as through socila media platforms like Instagram. They experience the process of getting traffic from free, organic, editorial, or natural search results in search engines to the platform they set up.
Furthermore, they delve into the technology needed to support their business:
- learning how AI can be harnessed as a tool to make our lives easier, banking time that can be repurposed for the creative process; honing the skills for effective prompting; and reflecting on the importance of integrity when using apps like ChatGPT.
- utilising Erank to maximise the impact of product descriptions and hashtags on SEO ranking, awareness of their company and products, and ultimately driving sales through keywords.
- Incorporating the mobile phone camera and Photoshop to maximise the power of imagery.
- Use graphic design tools, including Canva, to express the brand voice and create marketing assets (a logo etc).
And, of course, the 14- and 15-year-olds learn the practical process: making the products by hand, which are derived from the craft of needle felting, simultaneously exploring the realms of sourcing materials, the processes involved in creating the product and the fine art of how the scarse resource of time is best employed – for profit, wellbeing and with an ethical ethos.
Madame Rachel Craig, Crafts Teacher and Etsy Seller
“The aim of this Main Lesson is to give the tools to pupils to have a successful business online if they one day choose to have one. There is still huge value in using our hands, both economically and for our wellbeing. This education teaches that.”