Don Ledingham’s Learning Log

“How many students who participate in “enterprise activities” go on to become entrepreneurs?”

So I was asked this week. It stumped me for a while but it set off a line of thought which I wanted to explore. It seems that Enterprise in Education has been around ever since the Margaret Thatcher set up TVEI in 1982, whilst Young Enterprise goes back even further to the early 60’s. 

One of the implicit outcomes of such schemes is that they will encourage an entrepreneurial mentality and generate economic benefits to society.  However, I can find no evidence that any of these have directly resulted in more entrepreneurs or growth in the economy - although I invite anyone to correct that assertion.

Looking back over the last 20 years education has successfully turned the rather offensive idea of wealth creation into a more educationally acceptable activity which is about promoting enterprising attitudes - an outcome much more palatable to the sensitivities of those of us in education. The two graphics linked to this post perhaps characterise the fears that many teachers have had about promoting capitalism in schools, i.e. greed, selfishness and a focus on money at the expense of all else.

I wanted to consider how things might be different if we were more explicit about the outcomes of “enterprise” in schools. What if we really did encourage children to set up businesses which were focussed on making money - which the child kept? What if we found ways of supporting them with loans and advice about how to make more money from their ideas? Imagine a 13 year old who sets up her own dog walking business in a town and receives financial support and advice to get her idea off the ground.

I love the idea behind the Grameen Bank established in Bangladesh:

Grameen Bank (GB) has reversed conventional banking practice by removing the need for collateral and created a banking system based on mutual trust, accountability, participation and creativity.

Could we establish a Scottish version of such a scheme where young people could access loans to set up their own company? Could Tom Hunter take the place of Muhammad Yunus in an enterprising Scotland?

Perhaps its just me but I think such an opportunity would have excited me as a teenager.

One of the consequences of national initiatives such as Determined to Succeed is that they can appear to be divorced from the day-to-day learning and teaching process.

I went along today to present the Oscars for an ICT and Enterprise event.  It’s at events such as these where we see the natural interface between enterprising classroom approaches and learning and teachng.

Scott Lavery - our Determined to Succeed Officer - describes on his blog a very exciting project taking place at Wallyford Primary School.

“The P7’s now have a number of projects running in class which they have responsibility for and also which incorporate elements of AiFL and CfE.  The children themselves were extremely positive and motivated by the tasks which in turn kept them focused on their work.  In addition, each child in the class set their own goals which they are working towards in class which related to one or more of the 4 Capacities of Curriculum for Excellence.”

Scott is to be congratulated for reinforcing the classroom appplications of enterprising approaches.

Determined to Succeed is the Scottish Executive’s strategy for delivering enterprise in education. It aims to help Scotland’s young people develop self-confidence, self-reliance and ambition to achieve their goals - in work and in life.

I was delighted to learn that an extra £1 million of funding for enterprise education was announced today as a report on the first three years of the Executive’s Determined to Succeed programme showed that a record number of pupils are involved in enterprise learning.

Our own Determined to Succeed programme championed by Scott Lavery is having a significant impact upon the experience of young people in East Lothian - as even a cursory review of both of these links will show - so I’m confident we can put additional money to good use.

And so it was today that I had a conversation about whether or not the initiative is missing out on a key group - teachers.

The focus of the programme “aims to help Scotland’s young people develop self-confidence, self-reliance and ambition to achieve their goals - in work and in life.” Where it mentions teachers it descibes the development of enterprising approaches to learning and teaching.  But I wonder why we don’t explicitly say we want to create enterprising and entrepreneuriual teachers and educational leaders - which might even lead to a more enterprising Scottish educational system?

The Hunter Foundation Partnership are investing in a range of events aimed at supporting teacher and leader development, but the conversation that I had today asked if we, as educationalists, had something to learn about how how to run our business from entrepreneurs themselves - not just from them investing in our development?

I’ve explored this issue before on this log but it’s definitely something I’d like to follow up.