What is enterprise?
Enterprise education motivates learners and can help raise aspirations
and develop valuable skills for further education and employment. Learners
enjoy being given some autonomy to tackle problems, take responsibility
for their own actions, engage in real issues and evaluate the outcomes of
their decisions.
Enterprise education is about helping learners develop enterprise capability,
financial capability and economic and business understanding.
Enterprise capability is the ability to handle uncertainty and
respond positively to change; to create and implement new ideas and ways
of doing things; and to make reasonable risk/reward assessments and act
on these in one's personal and working life. It is also about innovation,
creativity, risk management, having a 'can do' approach and the drive to
make ideas happen.
Financial capability is the ability to manage one's own finances
and become questioning and informed consumers of financial services.
Economic and business understanding is the ability to understand
business and make informed choices about the use of resources.
Enterprise capability, financial capability and business and economic understanding
are developed through knowledge and understanding, skills and attributes.
Knowledge and understanding includes:
- organisation, innovation, risk, teamwork, managing change and personal
effectiveness (enterprise capability)
- money, credit, investment, costing projects, personal finance and insurance
(financial capability)
- the market, competition, price, efficiency, economic growth, organisation
of business and the world of work (economic and business understanding).
Skills include:
- decision-making, thinking and learning skills, design and making skills,
leadership, managing risk, selling, teamworking and key skills (enterprise
capability)
- budgeting, financial planning, personal risk management (financial capability)
- ability to make decisions and investigate simple hypotheses (economic
and business understanding).
Attributes include:
- self-reliance, a 'can do' approach, responsibility, ambition, open-mindedness,
respect for evidence, pragmatism, commitment (enterprise capability)
- taking responsibility for the impact of financial decisions (financial
capability)
- taking an interest in economics, resources, the role of business and
its responsibilities (economic and business understanding).
Developing a curriculum that supports enterprise
In its publication Learning to be enterprising: an evaluation of enterprise
learning at key stage 4 (August 2004), Ofsted suggests the following
six-point guide for schools planning an enterprise education programme.
- Develop enterprise learning as part of a coherent programme of vocational
and work-related learning.
- Establish a clear definition of enterprise learning and ensure it is
understood by staff, learners and other stakeholders.
- Identify the learning outcomes learners are expected to gain from enterprise
activities in terms of their knowledge, understanding, skills and attributes.
- Recognise that enterprise learning has implications for teaching and
learning styles in terms of setting learners more open-ended problems,
encouraging them to take more responsibility for their actions and giving
them greater autonomy in making decisions.
- Develop effective methods of assessing enterprise learning.
- Ensure that there are robust systems in place for monitoring and evaluating
the development of enterprise learning.
Some examples of enterprise activities are:
- business and/or community projects or investigations
- mini-enterprises (business, social or community)
- simulations
- work and/or community placements
- enterprise days and events.
When planning enterprise education, schools should ask the following questions:
- Are the activities and learning outcomes appropriate for our learners?
- What different or additional activities will need to be developed for
our learners?
- How can business and community partners be involved in planning and
delivering activities?
- How will the provision for enterprise learning be monitored and evaluated?
Schools should encourage learners, where possible, to take some or all
of the responsibility for their own actions through an enterprise process.
This process has four stages:
- stage 1 - tackling a problem or need. Learners generate and discuss
ideas to understand what is required to resolve the problem or meet the
need
- stage 2 - planning the project or activity. Learners break down tasks,
organise resources, deploy team members and allocate responsibilities
- stage 3 - implementing the plan. Learners solve problems and monitor
progress
- stage 4 - evaluating the process. Learners review activities and final
outcomes, reflect on lessons learnt and assess the skills, attitudes,
qualities and understanding acquired.
Enterprise in practice
Enterprise education is a style of learning that is student-centred. It
emphasises practical and participative methods.
Teachers value and promote aspects of enterprise education and this is
reflected in the comments below.
- Active learning - 'The learners have hands-on experience of running
a business, they make the decisions, analyse the problems, come up with
solutions and they make the mistakes too.'
- Learners taking responsibility for their own learning - 'The learners
were given two weeks of lesson time to research and develop their ideas
using any resources available. The learners contacted printing businesses
in the area directly or telephoned them in their own time to get further
information and quotes.'
- Taking risks - 'For some learners it represented the first time
at school that they had had to take responsibility for the success or failure
of a venture. Feedback from learners has generally been positive - even
learners whose venture didn't succeed saw the benefits.'
- Transferability of skills - 'The skills developed during IT lessons
were applied when the learners used a desktop publishing package to publish
and market their own school newspaper.'
- Teamwork and cooperation - 'Negotiation with adults (customers)
and with members of a production team within an individual enterprise
activity improves communication skills and self-confidence. Successful
working with others to produce and sell goods enhances self-esteem.'
- Learning in a community as well as a school context - 'We held a
meeting to show our findings about the leisure facilities available in
the village and the desires of young people living there. We only expected
8-10 people, what a shock when we found we had to run a meeting with over
30 people!'
- Negotiation and student-centred learning - 'Once the teacher had
explained what enterprise is all about and how it's assessed, it really
was "over to us". We decided just about everything, the type of business,
who should do what, how much to charge and so on. We were given some help
with market research and accounts. I hope I'll never have to do it again!
Opening a business is hard work!'
