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Background

The business life has become more international. It is really important for students to learn how to act in a modern multicultural work environment. In VIRBUS the students will act in different international business contexts and firms and also in different international virtual teams. Students will be able to acquire and improve the management skills needed in the global business environment and they are also able to learn and develop teamwork and communication skills. Current curriculum does not give students possibility to follow the idea of a whole business life cycle (start-up, growth, and internationalising, problem phase). The aim of creating this new learning environment is to increase the understanding of the whole international business life as whole, rather than only segments of it.

The joint outcome of VIRBUS network is to develop a business simulation for hospitality management on an international platform which includes more than one business sector. Due to these reasons not only hotel and restaurant but also food and beverages industries have been included to VIRBUS. The manufacturing of food products and beverages has been chosen because it has a close connection to the hotel and restaurant industry. These sectors also have international nature and present different business aspects. Current business simulations are basically concentred on one business sector and they are not able to show how the real diversified business life works. In VIRBUS there will two business fields and other fields can be easily added to it later on. Since VIRBUS will be based on open-source environment it can be adopted and modified suitable by other possible users and other fields can be easily added to it later on.

Most of the participating educational institutions are developing existing institutional curricula. Alternative, flexible and multimode methods of studying and integration between different management courses will be needed. It is important to create tools that are easily accessible and meet the needs of the students, teachers and trainers. Higher education institutes will benefit from VIRBUS as it allows them to develop and internationalize their curricula and at the same time to use virtual teaching methods. Diversified aspects of the VIRBUS will give a possibility for teachers of the different study fields to co-operate and integrate the teaching of business management in the fields of hospitality and manufacturing industries.