WU4Juniors

A free online program that empowers young people to discover the world of business
[Translate to English:] Schüler*innen am WU Campus

In a globalized economy that is becoming increasingly complex, financial, economic, and legal literacy are highly important skills – especially for school-aged people, who are the citizens and consumers of tomorrow. These skills give young people the tools for understanding the economic world they live in and enable them to interpret events that will either directly or indirectly affect them. Established in partnership with the Berndorf Private Foundation, the WU4Juniors program encourages young people to expand their financial, economic, and legal knowledge by offering interactive online learning modules. Through the LearnPublic platform, participants can explore 18 key topics in finance, economics, business, and law.

“Learning about business, economy, and society is not limited to pursuing a formal degree at WU. With WU4Juniors we want to contribute to raising the general awareness and economic literacy of interested citizens and get them interested in learning more.” Oliver Vettori, Director Program Management & Teaching and Learning Affairs

A success story in digital learning

With 69 modules available online, the WU4Juniors LearnPublic platform allows users to learn at their own pace and earn badges for each topic successfully completed. Participants also receive a WU4Juniors certificate to acknowledge their achievements – a valuable credential for pursuing professional career opportunities or higher education. Since its launch, WU4Juniors has seen exceptional participation, with over 130,000 interactive learning modules completed and a remarkable 23,000 badges earned. These numbers illustrate the program’s ability to engage with students and deepen their knowledge of business-related topics.

User satisfaction is reflected in the experiences of participants like Zeina, who shares: “Cell phone plans, household budgets, wages, and much more – these are all topics that are already relevant to us or at least will soon be … Everything was explained in a very understandable and realistic way, which I thought was great!”

[Translate to English:] WU4Juniors Logo
The annual WU4Juniors School Challenge

The WU4Juniors School Challenge is an annual nationwide initiative for secondary school classes in Austria, designed to boost students’ knowledge of economics, finance, and law. Participants have 31 days to complete the LearnPublic modules and earn as many badges as possible. This challenge adds an element of excitement to learning. Participation was particularly high in 2025, with an impressive 34 classes from 16 schools taking part and remained strong in 2026 with 23 classes from 17 schools involved. Collectively, 2,758 students earned an impressive 11,158 WU4Juniors badges, encouraging business-related learning through healthy competition and attractive prizes. Each year, representatives from the winning classes are invited to come to Vienna for a Campus WU tour and the award ceremony. Prizes from previous years include book vouchers, sustainability workshops, and class events of choice worth up to €2,000.

Society benefits from programs like WU4Juniors because they improve the public’s ability to better understand and critically evaluate financial and economic issues in their own individual lives.

Key Facts

  • Start: January 2019 

  • Area: Program Management and Teaching & Learning 

  • Supervision: Dr. Oliver Vettori - Director Program Management and Teaching & Learning

  • WU staff & partners: Johanna Warm - Head of Teaching and Learning Development, Katrin Bleckenwegner - Teaching and Learning Development; Bettina Fuhrmann - Head of the Institute for Business Education; Berndorf Private Foundation; Federation of Austrian Industries 

  • 69 learning modules summarized in 18 topics

  • To date, over 30,000 users are registered. 

  • More than 130,000 modules were completed. 

  • Together, all users have earned over 17,000 badges to be shared via social media or their CVs.

[Translate to English:] Icon Input
Input

  • Staff resources

  • Commitment and expertise from WU faculty as well as external partners

  • Collaboration with IT Services (e.g. WUtv for video production, LearnPublic system developers)

  • Financial support from Berndorf Private Foundation 

[Translate to English:] Icon Lupe
Activities

  • Developing interactive online self-learning modules including educational videos, accompanying exercises as well as quizzes to test knowledge

  • Implementing an annual school challenge 

[Translate to English:] Icon Output
Output

  • Increasing young people’s economic, financial and legal literacy by means of a comprehensive and free online business education program 

[Translate to English:] Icon Outcome
Outcome

  • Encouraging young and motivated people to discover the world of business and to pursue their academic career at WU 

[Translate to English:] Icon Impact
Impact

  • Long-term improvement of society’s economic literacy

  • Raising the attractiveness of post-secondary education in general

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