Four students in checked uniforms playing a city board game with play money and cards.

How we teach

Children learn by doing

Games, role play, field visits and projects. Ideas from Finnish education, built together with educators in India, so students understand and then act.

Learning the economy by playing it, in FutureCity

Our approach

Ideas from Finland, built for Indian classrooms

VentureVillage was founded by two Keralites living in Finland, who had seen as parents how differently children learn there. Rather than exporting Finnish solutions as they are, we build programs together with educators, so that they fit the schools that use them.

In our sessions, students do not just listen. They play, discuss, build and decide. Then they take what they learned home: a sorted bin, a family eco-pledge, a question they were afraid to ask before.

Our commitments

Five promises to every school

What schools, parents and partners can hold us to, with the proof behind each one.

Research-backed content

Our programs draw on research and on Finnish education. E4ET is itself an international study, running in India, Austria and Spain.

E4ET is run with researchers from the Max Planck Society and the University of Innsbruck

Trained facilitators

Sessions are led by facilitators trained in the program and in working with students in a classroom. Teachers help plan.

200+ facilitators trained, 2023–2025; 33 in the 2025 E4ET sessions

Structured delivery

Every program has a clear structure of units, sessions and days, planned with the school before we start.

E4ET: five days, three learning units. FutureCity: six sessions and a one-day workshop. GreenCity: ten chapters

Measurable outcomes

We check what students know and do, before and after. In research programs, findings go back to the school.

Baseline and endline surveys in E4ET; earlier FutureCity and GreenCity results in our 2020 impact analysis

Consent and child safeguarding

Parents know what happens and agree to it. Children's research data stays anonymous. Photos only with consent.

Written parental consent, and a parent FAQ in English and Malayalam

In every session

Four habits of a good session

Experience first

Games and reflections help students take in complex ideas, like climate or the economy.

Critical thinking

Students question, analyse and come up with their own ideas.

Working together

Group activities, peer learning and solving problems as a team.

Close to home

Students link global issues to their own school, home and neighbourhood.

In the classroom

What learning by doing looks like

Building a city
Sorting waste
Asking and answering
Reusing paper

Students at their desks raising hands while two facilitators lead a session beside a smart screen. — A classroom session

Skills for life

Entrepreneurial citizens, responsible leaders, environmental champions

Our programs build the skills young people need: communication, collaboration, entrepreneurship and innovation. Themes cover sustainability, the circular and digital economy, waste management, health and working life.

Grades 6 to 9 in most programs
English, and Malayalam where offered
Delivered by trained facilitators, with teachers involved in planning

Consent and safeguarding

How we look after children

Sessions take place at school, with the school's knowledge and its teachers involved.
For research programs, parents or guardians give written consent and can withdraw at any time, without giving a reason.
Survey data is stored under an anonymous code. Researchers never see a child's name.
Names are kept by VentureVillage only, to manage attendance, and deleted after 5 years.
Photos are used only with consent. Parents can ask for their child to be left out or removed.
Data is never used for marketing.

Privacy and safeguarding

Feedback

What students say

The activities were fun & interactive, which helped us think creatively and work together as a team. It was a great opportunity to learn new things in an engaging way.

StudentE4ET, Global Public School, Kochi

This is an absolutely wonderful and informative course. The concept of menstruation was and still is a less discussed topic in our society. So this course enabled me to learn new things and also learn about the process of using the menstrual products which I was not aware of. I would highly recommend this course to all girls.

BadraMy Period My Pride participant

The class was good and insightful. It was very interesting with so many games.

StudentE4ET, Dayapuram Residential School, Calicut

Bring a program to your school

Schools, CSR teams, foundations and researchers: tell us what you would like to achieve.