This report is timely in that it is published during a period when major developments relating to the future shape of the curriculum in Scotland for 3-18 year olds are under way.
Over the last decade, the profile of enterprise has risen significantly. The promotion of enterprise in education has sought to establish an approach which blends personal learning benefits with more general gains for employability, entrepreneurship and the economy. A key question at this time is the extent to which enterprise in education has helped, and can continue to help, to address the priority issues facing Scottish education and their relationships with economic and social change. In HMIE’s report Improving Scottish Education1, I summarised these priorities as achievement; curriculum, learning and teaching; inclusion; underperformance; leadership and innovation; and accountability. This report touches on each of these key challenges. The report is also relevant to issues identified in the OECD report2 of December 2007, in particular the need for schools to innovate, and to offer high quality vocational provision which meets the needs of all learners. The OECD’s broad definition of vocational provision emphasises applied and collaborative learning, problem solving and real-life orientation. These are features which are evident in many of the enterprise experiences evaluated in this report, confirming the role that enterprise can play in improving vocational provision for all.
The report aims to contribute to the debate about what learning and achievement in Scotland should look like in the years to come, and how best to achieve the outcomes we are all seeking for young learners. It marks important progress in schools’ use of enterprise in education as a stimulus for effective learning as they, their authorities and their partners take forward Curriculum for Excellence.
When I launched HMIE’s self-evaluation resource How good is our school at enterprise in education?3 in October 2004, I suggested that a key objective for enterprise in education was to exert its influence, sometimes in subtle ways, across the breadth of the curriculum. This report testifies to very positive developments in that regard, but also underlines the continuing value of entrepreneurial and enterprise-specific activities and experiences as components of young people’s education. It also makes clear the need to build on progress to date in the context of Curriculum for Excellence and Skills for Scotland: A Lifelong Skills Strategy4. Improving the contribution of enterprise to the education of all young learners remains important and as yet unfinished business.
Graham Donaldson
HM Senior Chief Inspector