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Improving Enterprise in Education
A report by HM Inspectorate of Education

4 Curriculum, and teaching for learning

The range of contexts in which enterprise impacted upon 3-18 year olds could be grouped into the two broad, overlapping categories summarised in Section 1 of this report.

• Enterprise and entrepreneurial activities, projects, and contexts where young learners worked together to define a problem, identify a solution and take creative, effective action (such as work experience, business entrepreneurial projects, industry and enterprise awareness events, engineering, science and technology challenges, school nutrition action groups, eco committees, health promoting committees, pupil councils, and organising committees for social, charitable and fund-raising events and school shows).
• Enterprising approaches to learning and teaching at all stages and in all areas of young learners’ experience (such as simulated shops in early years settings, teamwork, cooperative learning and critical enquiry approaches to environmental studies topics for pupils at the primary stages, secondary subjects which demonstrated a clear focus on core and employability skills and raised learners’ awareness of relevant careers or important economic issues, community learning contexts such as building relationships between different groups in the community, and programmes in personal and social development in special schools which promoted learners’ self esteem and developed their confidence to deal with the challenges of finding and keeping a job).

Pupils’ experience of enterprise in education included work placements and workplace visits, entrepreneurial activities, career education and guidance and many other recognisable, specific contributions. However, the influences of enterprise in education permeated the curriculum, to promote and support enterprising approaches at every stage of learning. In taking ahead this key objective of Determined to Succeed, centres had adopted and extended aspects of existing good practice in learning and teaching.

This report has touched on the relationship which enterprise in education has with major developments in citizenship, health and sustainable development. Enterprise in education was a feature in the wider life of schools and centres in creative, social, cultural and sporting contexts. Teachers used enterprising approaches to go with the grain of other developments aimed at improvements in learning and teaching, achievement and attainment, and promoting innovation and creativity.

Flexibility in interpreting enterprise in education was critical to meeting learners’ needs. Enterprise in education featured particularly prominently on the agenda of special schools, but equally it offered high-attaining learners stimulus, challenge and relevance in learning.

Learning and Teaching Scotland illustrated, in Excellence through Enterprise¹³, how enterprising approaches can contribute to development of the four learner capacities in Curriculum for Excellence (appendix 3). Across the inspection sample, enterprise in education was having a positive influence on confidence building, giving experience of success, developing more responsible citizens, and helping individual learners become more effective and creative contributors. Some of the strongest and most persuasive of these experiences included pupils’ work on committees and teams, planning and delivering a range of outcomes for their schools and communities, and giving the pupils a direct and positive sense of achievement and reward.

The enterprise experience across the sectors

Play contexts in early years settings provided fertile environments for enterprising approaches, and many staff understood and applied the principles of enterprise in education skilfully. Children from the age of three enjoyed and learned from play experiences such as a simulated post office, and from visits from "people who help", supporting them in developing understanding of their world.

Pupils of primary age, including those in special schools, were achieving important outcomes through enterprise in education. They were highly motivated by the experience of:

• specific enterprise activities such as fund-raising days;
• enterprising learning approaches in different areas of the curriculum, such as real-life problem solving in mathematics or teamwork in research in environmental studies; and
• work in pupil committees.

Successful examples also included projects in which pupils had been creative and influential in the planning stages. Many class programmes ensured that enterprising approaches were seeded throughout the curriculum.

The importance of offering support for secondary school subject teachers in interpreting enterprise in education within their disciplines had been recognised. Determined to Succeed had sponsored well-focused development work and good progress had been achieved in Learning and Teaching Scotland’s subject-specific guidance, helpfully linking enterprising approaches with the principles for curricular design withinCurriculum for Excellence.

However, as previously noted, there were relatively few high-quality resources which successfully portrayed the important achievements of business entrepreneurs. This aspect was worthy of greater attention from those responsible for providing resources to support schools.

The Standard Grade course in Social and Vocational Skills (SVS) was offered in three schools in the inspection sample. The course provided a programme, certificated by the SQA, which embodied much of the spirit of enterprise in education. Pupils following the SVS course in these schools enjoyed a well-planned, coherent experience, receiving recognition for their achievements in work experience, entrepreneurial activities and social enterprises such as organising community events. These structured experiences had a significant impact on pupils’ motivation and achievements. They provided an important source of ideas and approaches for schools engaging with the current curriculum reforms. The structure of SVS offers some possible strategies for the challenge of seeking greater equity of educational outcomes for socially disadvantaged pupils, whilst at the same time making the curriculum more relevant for all.

Vocational programmes have experienced a marked resurgence in popularity in the last few years, meeting perceived needs for individuals, the economy and society. Enterprise in education has helped promote the idea of vocational provision as relevant to all pupils, and at all stages of learning. Its specific contribution has been to present vocational preparation as a broad concept, helping to address issues of employability, but doing so alongside development of a wider set of skills. In this respect, as in others, enterprise in education has a clear role in addressing the recommendations of the OECD report with respect to vocational provision.

Skills for Work programmes had provided one of the most visible strategic approaches to offering vocational experience, and had recorded some significant achievements based on partnership approaches. They had also highlighted a range of issues affecting vocational programmes in general, and those involving the more complex logistics of school-college partnerships specifically. General issues included the status and currency of vocational programmes. It is important to ensure that vocational programmes provide longer-term gains for the individual, in addition to any relevance to medium-term labour market patterns. Alongside their focus on specific technical and professional vocations, these programmes need to continue to promote wider enterprising principles and entrepreneurial objectives.

Almost all pupils expressed positive views about the value of work placements and other vocational experiences such as Skills for Work programmes, supporting the important principle that vocational opportunities and themes are important for all learners. Pupils believed that they had gained significantly from an experience of the world of work. Some had been given too little opportunity to relate these experiences to their wider schooling, for example through debriefing discussions with careers advisers or in lessons in personal and social education. They needed more time to reflect on the impact of these experiences on their awareness of how to find and keep a job, although such reflection was helpfully encouraged inSkills for Work programmes. Schools did not consistently see the potential of work experience and other vocational sampling as a major stimulus for learning, part of developing awareness of the wider world of work, and an important staging post in learners’ progress towards life beyond school.

Secondary schools were giving greater emphasis to vocational opportunities through curriculum options, fully endorsed by appropriate professional and trades organisations, and designed to appeal to a wide range of needs and ambitions. As previously noted, these included Skills for Work programmes, amongst a wider range of link activities with colleges. A few schools promoted the relevance of vocational themes for all pupils, whatever their job aspirations. Whilst valuing relevant vocational experience for all pupils, many schools were also actively promoting work-related programmes successfully as a strategy for some disaffected learners.

Learners in some schools spoke positively about the quality of contribution from Careers Scotland staff. Importantly, the theme of careers featured strongly in the work of primary schools, addressed in ways which were appropriate for the age and stage of the pupils.

Pupils at the secondary stages valued the expertise which Careers Scotland staff brought, providing helpful information about different career routes, and advice on how pupils could be best prepared and qualified to pursue these careers. Most pupils valued the direct contacts which they had, generally from S4 onwards, and found the information, advice and guidance helpful and productive. School programmes in social education often included opportunities for pupils to consider careers from around S2. Pupils had found it helpful where Careers Scotland staff had been available to them and their parents when they were preparing to make choices in the curriculum. Few pupils felt there had been enough opportunity for them to work individually with specialist careers staff prior to S4.

Staff in special schools were particularly positive about the work of specialist career advisers in helping plan for learners’ future needs and in linking with employers. These specialist advisers played an important additional role of advocacy, bringing pupils’ talents and employability skills to employers’ notice.

Teachers often used enterprising approaches, such as teamwork and direct experiential learning, to promote achievement among pupils with additional support needs. Special schools were making skilful use of enterprising approaches and opportunities, in addressing priorities such as motivation and confidence building among pupils. Pupils responded well to practical approaches, based on direct experience, which often had an important impact on their personal and social development and employability skills. The focus on working in partnership with colleges, employers and a wide range of other support agencies and providers raised the expectations of learners and their parents of what they could achieve, reflecting the positive influence of partnership approaches in mainstream secondary schools.

The sample of community learning and development contexts confirmed that enterprising approaches were well established in youth work. CLD programmes promoted innovative and effective learning, at times addressing significant social issues. The gains for pupils of both primary and secondary school age involved in effective CLD ventures, including their general employability skills and "can do" attitude, were potentially highly transferable into the workplace. They testified to the valuable contribution which community contexts can offer when developing learners’ enterprising capabilities. In turn, enterprise approaches provided an important resource for developing community capacity, promoting social entrepreneurship and increasing individuals’ employability.

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