Sean Murphy sometimes has some interesting conversations with Daniel (9), Lauren (7), and Meghan (5), the younger three of his eight children, when they come home from school in the evening. "They tell me about local government for instance, which is a big concept for young children," he says.

The three all attend Lucan Educate Together school in Dublin, and learn these sort of details through a Junior Achievement programme, which is in place for each class from junior infants up. Junior Achievement is a non-profit organisation dedicated to building bridges between classroom and workplace.

Its educational programmes, designed to help young people understand the world of work, take about 45 minutes a week for six weeks and are given by business volunteers from one of the organisations supporting Junior Achievement.

Sean got involved four years ago through a company he used to work for, Symantec, which supports Junior Achievement. He recommended the concept his children's school. He is giving a class in the companies module to Transition Year students in Colaiste Dhulaigh, in Coolock.

"There are programmes to suit each age level. My youngest at the moment is five and the programme they are doing is about `We Ourselves', talking to them about themselves and their families, how people communicate within families and how families are part of communities," says Sean. His older children would have gone through modules about how communities work and are able to talk about the fact that people are elected into the council and that the council is paid for by tax monies, that the police and fire brigade and so on are also paid for from tax monies.

"They have an idea of what tax is now, because that module also gets them to do a little job and pays them. They have to pay some of that money back in tax so they get a very personal feeling what it is like to lose some of your personal finances in tax. "They find that extremely interesting and funny and, at the same time, they hate giving back the money."

For days before an upcoming Junior Achievement programme Sean finds that Daniel, Lauren and Meghan look forward to it. "They love it. They recognise the business volunteers by their personal names. So they'll say `John will be coming in on Thursday and I can't wait to see what we're going to do.' To me it actually animates the kids on what would probably be mundane issues, but to children it's all very new."

The advantages of Junior Achievement for children, says Sean, is that they "realise that there is something other than the schoolroom that they are in. "They learn about something outside of school and they learn it in an interesting way from somebody who is actually living out there and doing it."

It helps them understand that they go to school for a reason and that maybe later on when they leave school they will have a career and have a job and be part of a living community. "They learn about the physical realities of the money thing, the idea that when you work you get some money and it pays for not only what I buy for myself but it also has a social aspect to it. We give taxes and it's to look after our community as well. They learn a lot about that."

The classes contain a talk and an question-and-answer session, and have a practical element. In the community module, they get to make a vote about which of three businesses gets to let a shop. "They have to work out the pros and cons of the three different business to the community. And they get to make their own mind up and decide on who gets to use the shop. "There's a lot of very practical things for young children to get involved with and do that improves the way they think and gives them the opportunity to have their say rather than telling them what to do."