Supporting enterprise activities

"Enterprise education encourages young people to handle uncertainty and respond positively to change, to create and implement new ideas and ways of doing things, and to take and manage risks. It helps young people develop a 'can do' attitude and the drive to make ideas happen, raising their aspirations, improving their achievement in school and developing valuable skills for education and employment." Enterprise Overview, Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) 2009

Through enterprise education, students learn about making ideas happen; getting involved in enterprise activities; and how 'being enterprising' will help them when they leave school and/or join the world of work.

Students learn to:

  • be innovative
  • develop a positive view of risk taking and learning from mistakes
  • make decisions
  • show leadership
  • take on new challenges
  • be adaptable, flexible and creative
  • develop confidence
  • reflect on what they have learnt
  • articulate how they have developed and demonstrated enterprise capability, and why these skills are important for their future.

Employers can help students to achieve these outcomes in the following ways:

  • Helping them to get involved in a range of enterprise activities, including business and community projects, mini-enterprises, simulations, work and community placements, and enterprise days and events.
  • Helping them to experience a different sort of teaching approach from what they are used to, including problem-based approaches, collaborative and cooperative activities, coaching and mentoring.
  • Encouraging them to tackle issues that involve an element of risk and uncertainty about financial outcomes, as well as regard for a successful resolution.
  • Teaching them the importance of working to deadlines with limited resources.
  • Helping them to organise themselves to fulfil roles and complete tasks.
  • Instructing them about how to create and implement project plans that include setting targets, managing budgets and monitoring progress.

See the QCDA's Enterprise Overview for futher details.

 

Benefits for employers

  • Students learn about the skills that employers consider to be of primary importance. Employers thus help to ensure that students are aware of what is required to be useful in the workplace/in their sector of industry.
  • Employers get the satisfaction of seeing how students are motivated by real-life work.

 

Benefits for students:

  • Enterprise projects give students the chance to see what 'real life' work is like.
  • Students can see how their school/college learning is useful and applicable in the workplace.
  • The projects help students to learn new skills, e.g. teamwork and financial management.
  • The projects provide a welcome change from regular academic work.
  • A recent survey of 200 Yorkshire schools found teaching staff to be very positive about the benefits young people received from engaging in enterprising activities:
    • increasingly employability/enterprise skills (eg time management, decision-making, problem-solving)
    • increasing business and economic understanding
    • raising aspirations of pupils
    • influencing career choices