TANGERANG SELATAN — Not every business lesson can be understood from page after page of textbooks. Sometimes, the best understanding comes when someone has to face customers who bargain over prices, calculate capital that is beginning to run low, or experience the excitement of successfully selling their first product.

That was the experience of dozens of Dharma Karya UT High School students during a Market Day activity held in collaboration with the Bachelor’s Degree Program in Entrepreneurship at Universitas Terbuka (UT) on Friday (August 14). For one day, they were no longer students sitting and listening to theories in class, but young entrepreneurs who had to think strategically, make decisions, and take responsibility for the businesses they operated.

The activity was an important part of efforts to provide entrepreneurship education that is more practical and relevant to everyday life. The students learned everything from designing products, managing capital, and developing marketing strategies to serving customers and calculating the profits generated from their sales.

Head of Dharma Karya UT High School Nur Beti, S.Pd., M.M., said the collaboration with UT’s Bachelor’s Degree Program in Entrepreneurship was deliberately designed to allow students to experience firsthand the process of building a business.

According to her, entrepreneurship education becomes more meaningful when students not only understand concepts but also experience firsthand the dynamics that occur in the field.

“We guide students from planning their businesses, developing marketing strategies, and managing capital to presenting their results through Market Day reports and presentations,” Nur Beti said.

Behind the excitement of Market Day was a lengthy process that had begun several months earlier. The program started with socialization activities in June 2026, followed by business planning and intensive mentoring. After receiving initial guidance from the Universitas Terbuka team, the school continued the mentoring process through teachers assigned to guide each group.

A total of 30 selected students participated in the program and were divided into six business groups. Interestingly, participant selection was not based solely on academic grades. The school also considered the students’ potential, abilities, and character, particularly their readiness to take part in the entrepreneurship learning process.

“The selection was not based solely on academic rankings, but was conducted by homeroom teachers by considering the students’ abilities and character,” she said.

This approach is important because the business world demands more than academic intelligence. Creativity, the courage to seize opportunities, the ability to work together, and resilience in facing failure are all competencies that need to be developed from an early age.

The lesson became truly tangible when the students began operating their businesses. With limited capital, each group had to decide what products to sell, how to manage expenses, and how to attract customers amid competition.

After the activity ended, all participants were required to prepare reports containing the business processes they had gone through, the lessons they had learned, and the various challenges they faced while selling their products.

The results told different stories. Several groups recorded profits of around Rp200,000 to Rp300,000. One group that started with approximately Rp400,000 in capital was even able to record a turnover of up to twice its initial capital.

However, behind those figures was a much more valuable lesson.

Not all groups achieved the same results. Some were able to sell their products quickly, while others had to work harder to attract customers. Some students also began to understand that the capital they had invested could not always be recovered in a short period.

“Experiences like these are considered important so that students learn to deal with risks while also finding solutions when a business does not go according to plan,” she said.

For Dharma Karya UT High School, this is the true essence of entrepreneurship education. It is not merely about how much profit students manage to bring home, but about how they learn to make decisions, face risks, adapt to circumstances, and find solutions when encountering obstacles.

The Market Day activity was also part of the school’s regular Jumat Memikat program. Various self-development activities, including sports, exercise sessions, and student talent performances, have provided students with spaces for self-expression. The addition of Market Day brings a new dimension by introducing the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship into the school environment.

Going forward, the experience gained by the 30 participants is expected not to stop with them. The knowledge and confidence developed throughout the process are expected to spread to other students, allowing an entrepreneurial culture to take deeper root within Dharma Karya UT High School.

Ultimately, the goal of entrepreneurship education is not merely to produce future businesspeople. More than that, it seeks to develop a generation capable of creating value, willing to try new things, independent in making decisions, and unwilling to give up easily when facing challenges. This spirit is also in line with SDG 4 on Quality Education and SDG 8 on Decent Work and Economic Growth.

With capital amounting to hundreds of thousands of rupiah and simple stalls in the school environment, the students learned something far greater than simply how to sell products. They learned about the courage to start, responsibility for the choices they make, and the meaning of a process. These are lessons that will remain relevant regardless of the professions they choose in the future.

“That experience provides valuable preparation for developing a young generation that is creative, willing to try, capable of creating value, and increasingly ready to become independent individuals,” she concluded.