Enterprise:101 - Why Are Enterprise Skills So Important?

WHY ARE ENTERPRISE SKILLS SO IMPORTANT?

Facilitating learning in an enterprising way does not detract from the intended educational outcomes. An enterprising educator aims to increase the awareness of the world of work and maximise opportunities for developing enterprising skills and behaviours. This can only serve to enhance the curriculum and the learners’ experience. Perhaps one of the key misconceptions regarding enterprise is that there has to be a complete throwing out of the rule book in order to do it well, however this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Research carried out in a joint project between Taylor’s University in Malaysia and University of Abertay in Dundee ascertained that an “enterprising spine embedded in the academic curriculum” better equipped learners with the skills required for the job market but not necessarily to be entrepreneurial.

As highlighted in Enterprise Education as a Pedagogy, some of the classroom approaches still used today have changed little in the past century. Are these traditional methods appropriate for today’s learners and future workforce?

The World Economic Forum estimates that “65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist.” In addition, the concept of a ‘job for life’ is becoming a rarity, meaning that the future workforce must have the ability to continually adapt and learn.

What are your thoughts on this?

How can we prepare our learners for the future?

From this we can see that the need to approach situations flexibly and in an enterprising way is what will be needed to make these future employees more employable and fulfilled in their work.

However, the concept behind enterprise education isn’t simply to create a generation of enterprising thinkers or entrepreneurs, it empowers learners and gives more control over their learning experiences. Therefore, the onus cannot solely be on the learners to move beyond their comfort zone, it is vital that educators become facilitators and collaborators. By working in tandem, both learners and practitioners can develop an entrepreneurial mindset and position themselves more comfortably to meet the increasingly diverse demands of the world of work.

Supporting the theory of enterprise since 2016, Developing the Young Workforce actually highlights Enterprise within the Career Education Standard (3-18) as an entitlement of all Scottish learners:

“develop understanding of enterprise, entrepreneurship and self-employment as a career opportunity”

Within the Career Education Standard (3-18) ‘I can’ statements it becomes clear that the expectation is for learners to be able to discuss some elements of different jobs, role play these jobs and communicate with individuals holding these roles by the end of Early Level. Perhaps you have been doing this for years and have never considered it as an enterprise activity? If this is entirely new to you, we will be breaking it down over the coming chapters to allow you to fully understand what tools you may need to tackle enterprise in the classroom.

The UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) found that when employers were asked about the most common skills lacking in applicants, enterprise skills were noticeably present: 47% of participating employers mentioned applicants were unable to manage their own time and priorities, 40% of applicants to roles were unable to manage their own – or others’ – feelings, whilst 37% lacked the ability to work as part of a team.

Before we go further it is important to reiterate that enterprise skills have importance beyond their role as a gateway to employment or entrepreneurship: the development of personal and social skills, relevant to the present are of equal importance. Expressing creativity in producing solutions, learning to reflect on their own strengths, interests and aspirations and also having the ability to apply financial literacy and numeracy skills in real-world settings are areas in which enterprise skills can support the personal development in learners that supersede the classroom setting.

An enterprising approach to education can help us to build on the natural creativity and curiosity of our learners if we give them space, time and resources to discover their immediate environment. By enabling them to venture beyond the classroom, we can challenge learners with real-life contexts, for example, with community projects. It can also ultimately contribute to a more inclusive society if we are mindful to engage positive role models from under-represented groups in society when establishing partnerships between school and the outside world.