During the boom decades following the end of the Second World War, various initiatives were launched by individual Swiss companies and several bourgeois groups to provide young people with economic knowledge. In the context of the Cold War, the left-wing youth movements and a new consumerism among the population, however, also the employer associations in Switzerland began to invest in the economic education of the young population. These educational initiatives between 1950 and 1990 are the focus of this paper. I am thus following on from more recent work in the history of education, which focuses on the economic meaning of schooling and education. (Carpentier 2003; Ruoss 2018; Westberg 2017) The sources available include correspondence and memos from the archives of several Swiss business associations as well as archival material from the state archives. In addition, the publications of companies and associations with which teachers and pupils were to be reached are analysed. As a first step, I will analyse the instruments with which various companies addressed young people directly in the 1950s and 60s. The Swiss banks in particular were very active in this field. They published give-aways, some of them with high-quality illustrations, in which the basics of financial affairs are explained to future customers. In a second step, I will reconstruct those initiatives with which economic knowledge should be passed on to the young population. I will focus less on the curricular content than on the methods and target groups. In the beginning, the young people themselves were less frequently directly addressed than the teachers, who were invited, for example, to visit companies and attend specialized lectures on economic topics. In this context, the teachers’ associations became an active partner of the employer associations. However, when the youth loudly pushed for political participation, the focus of the economic initiatives shifted. Although teachers continued to be involved, it was now increasingly necessary to address the young population directly. Accordingly, competitions were organised or management simulation games were developed in which young people were encouraged to develop a business-friendly attitude. In this way, it was to be ensured that there was still a market-friendly climate in Switzerland. In addition, the employers wanted to avoid fierce political conflicts by directly involving the various social interest groups.

Carpentier, Vincent (2003). Public Expenditure on Education and Economic Growth in the UK, 1833-2000. History of Education, 32(1): 1-15. Ruoss, Thomas (2018). Die magische Kraft des Sparens. Schulsparkassen als Mittel zur Volkserziehung seit der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Bildungsgeschichte: International journal for the historiography of education, 8(1):11-25. Westberg, J. (2017). Funding the Rise of Mass Schooling: The Social, Economic and Cultural History of School Finance in Sweden, 1840-1900. Basingstoke: Palgrave.