Enterprising schooling: boldly taking students where no one has gone before

The word ‘enterprise’ entered English from French during the early C15th. It originally simply meant ‘an undertaking’ but by the end of that century of adventure and exploration it was being used to describe a willingness to undertake challenges or activities requiring daring. Our word ‘entrepreneur’ derives from the same linguistic root but only began to be used in relation to business during C19th.

The digital revolution, new ventures in space exploration and continued globalisation have created conditions favourable for a new generation of explorers. In this article I’ll address key questions about the place of enterprise education in school and explain why we should think of it as more than a bolt-on extra.      

Why are schools being encouraged to adopt enterprise education?

The simple reason why governments and industry bodies are leaning on schools to become more entrepreneurially friendly and teach children enterprise skills is because economic prosperity is seen linked to business innovation and success[1]. With predictions for continued levels of high youth unemployment and reduced job security, many analysts also argue that social cohesion depends on more young people acquiring the abilities needed to start up their own companies and launch new initiatives[2].

What is an ‘enterprise school’?

There are two common approaches to creating an ethos of enterprise in schools. First, the school provides opportunities for students to understand how businesses work while learning and practising relevant entrepreneurial skills[3]. Lists of these vary but tend to include: team work, effective communication, critical thinking, problem solving and organisational skills. These are often complemented by attention to digital competency and financial awareness. Some teachers are already aiming to help students develop these but in an enterprise school there is explicit linking of the skills to business and innovation themes.    

The second method takes into account what are seen as the personal characteristics of successful entrepreneurs or ‘enterprise’ dispositions. There are different lists of valuable attributes young people should acquire but most include: resilience, adaptability, initiative, openness, creativity and emotional intelligence. Assessing the acquisition of these dispositions is not easy but attention can be given to how they are embedded within the school learning culture and reflected in curriculum content.

Who is entrepreneurship education for?

One of the challenges schools face is that not all students readily perceive the value of learning about the skills required to be successful in business. Many children have no entrepreneurial role-models in their family circle nor have had contact with people involved in start-ups and business innovation[4]. Others fall for the myths of the geek university drop-out who makes millions, Zuckerberg style, or that success only comes by striking it lucky and genuine ‘business’ know-how can’t be taught. 

However, all organisations from charities to multinationals are looking for people who can make things happen and create new products. I once took Geography students to a conference where Oxfam’s head of research was speaking and afterwards a couple went to ask him what experience they would need in order to work for the charity. His answer took us by surprise, “Get some business experience or set up your own social enterprise. We need people who can show initiative and have good commercial sense.” Whether students become cricket stars or pop singers, plumbers or architects, having entrepreneurial skills will serve them well.

How can schools embrace enterprise?

Many schools will dedicate a whole day to hosting an enterprise special for their students. These are fun days, often with a competitive element, where groups of students work together to design a product, create marketing and attempt to sell or win investors for their new creations. The idea is give kids a realistic feeling for business, coupled with hands on practice of problem solving, team work and creativity. Some schools link an enterprise initiative to supporting a local charity or school fundraising. The same principles can be applied for cross-curriculum challenges where students are encouraged to work on a project for several weeks drawing from ideas and instruction given within a variety of subjects[5].

Another good idea to help children learn about enterprise is to invite parents in with business experience and local entrepreneurs. Hearing people from different backgrounds involved in business tell their story can make a huge difference to young people’s perceptions and provide important role-models[6]. 

The goal is to provide horizon broadening and skills practising opportunities to students throughout their schooling. All dispositions and skills take time to develop. Even one off specials require follow-up in lessons, where enterprise can be shown to have transferrable value when applied to regular study activities. If teachers have doubts about the effort needed to link enterprise dispositions to their science or history lessons, they would do well to consider what an opposite set of characteristics looks like. Instead of encouraging resilience, we leave students fragile; creativity is replaced by dependence on instructions; curiosity gives way to passivity and initiative to apathy.

Recently, I've been working with schools who are using the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory (ELLI) as the basis for their employability and student leadership skills development programmes. This has included using ELLI within a business mentoring scheme for young people at risk of underachievement and with apprentices. The mentors found the ELLI profile as particularly helpful to enable meaningful conversations about the relationship between study and learning at work. Helping young people build their learning capacity, understand the mechanics of learning, and acquiring the qualities businesses need their people to have are closely linked. Furthermore, there is a strong connection between the willing engagement, reflective attitude and grit which characterises powerful learners and the positive attributes of leadership. ELLI has proven highly effective as a methodology for addressing these issues and can generate reliable data with which to measure and evaluate impact.

No school could plan on producing the next Bill Gates. But schools do have an important role in helping every child aspire to fulfil their potential, exceed expectations, and contribute positively to their community. When each of the qualities and skills of enterprise are whittled down perhaps it is a capacity and spirit for adventure at their heart. Encouraging students to see all learning opportunities in this way, nurturing risk-taking, viewing trials as a means to improve, and seeing questioning as the true indicator of classroom engagement are worthy educational and enterprise goals. Adopting this approach allows schools to be like the Starship Enterprise, boldly taking students where they have never gone before!

•  In what way does your school have an entrepreneurial ethos, a culture of adventure?
• Can you identify relationships between learning opportunities and developing students’ entrepreneurial dispositions?
• How are students provided regular opportunities to practice enterprise skills?

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Thanks for reading. If you’ve appreciated the post please ‘like’ and share with your network. More posts can be found at https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/dr-nigel-newton-76992624/ 

Interested in knowing more about learning power, the importance of seeing the relationship between learning dispositions and willpower, or considering how teachers' development can be supported? Have you got questions about how growth mindset or formative assessment techniques can really be made to work? Or, are you interested to know more about the school values which help students learn?

Nigel is an educational researcher, consultant and speaker working to help schools and students realise their learning potential. 

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Article originally published in NEXUS Circle’s monthly professional learning publication designed to equip, empower and enable educational leaders.

https://circle.education/nexus/

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Reference

[1] Foundation for Young Australians (2016), Enterprise skills and careers education why Australia needs a national strategy. April 2016 (accessed online February 1st 2017 at https://www.fya.org.au/report/enterprise-skills-and-careers-education-in-schools/)

[2] Read the speech by OECD Deputy Secretary General, Aart de Geus, during the opening session of the 10th International Entrepreneurship Forum, held in Bahrain on 9-11 January 2011, “Economic prosperity and social cohesion: The role of entrepreneurship and innovation”.

[3] Peterman, N. E., & Kennedy, J. (2003). Enterprise education: Influencing students’ perceptions of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship theory and practice, 28(2), 129-144.

[4] Decker, R., Haltiwanger, J., Jarmin, R., Miranda, J., Chatterji, A., Glaeser, E., Kerr, W., Zenou, Y., Wahba, J. and Nanda, R. (2016) The importance of family background and neighbourhood effects as determinants of entrepreneurship.

[5] Lamrani, R., Chraibi, S., Qassimi, S., Hafidi, M., & El Amrani, A. (2017). Serious Game to Enhance and Promote Youth Entrepreneurship. In Europe and MENA Cooperation Advances in Information and Communication Technologies (pp. 77-85). Springer International Publishing.

Moberg, K. (2014). Two approaches to entrepreneurship education: The different effects of education for and through entrepreneurship at the lower secondary level. The International Journal of Management Education, 12(3), 512-528.

[6] Rosique-Blasco, M., Madrid-Guijarro, A., & García-Pérez-de-Lema, D. (2016). Entrepreneurial skills and socio-cultural factors: An empirical analysis in secondary education students. Education+ Training, 58(7/8), 815-831.