Enterprise:101 - Support and Resources

WHAT SUPPORT IS AVAILABLE?

Scotland’s Enterprising Schools can be your first port of call for all things enterprise.

We offer curriculum-mapped resources completely free at all levels for learners aged 3-18, a range of CLPL opportunities and also the chance for professional dialogue.

As part of what we do, we also engage with a range of partners that can support and assist you in developing enterprise in your classroom.

ENTERPRISE EDUCATION RESOURCES

Our Pocket Guide to Enterprise presents the advantages of enterprise education alongside the curricular links in a simple, free download. Keep this handy when planning enterprise activity and for highlighting the importance to colleagues, pupils, parents and partners.

Our Enterprise Wheel is a great visual tool, demonstrating how you can facilitate an enterprising methodology to enhance curriculum provision. The wheel can be applied to any learning scenario: by working through the six steps, you can ensure that all learning opportunities, from pupil-teacher interactions to your own professional learning, will facilitate the development of the enterprising skills and attributes. Use the wheel to aid your planning and evaluation.

Our Professional Reflection Tool can help you gauge where your school is on its enterprise journey and will support the self-evaluation process. The ideas highlighted through this tool will be very useful when curriculum planning and can help you embed Building the Curriculum 4 and Developing the Young Workforce agendas as part of your development plan.

Look at our Resources page for lesson plans, pupil activities and partner resources. Our Interesting Practice page will inspire you with practical ideas and implementation tips.

WIDER THEMES FOR ENTERPRISE ACTIVITY

There are a range of topical themes which can be used to facilitate enterprise learning.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child can be used as a helpful resource upon which to launch enterprise education. Use of the UNCRC with pupils to explore how a rightsbased approach might influence change in schools, local communities and beyond, can form the foundations of an enterprise project.Ask whether pupils understand their own rights. They might wish to help enact positive change by ensuring others have access to their rights – this could be done through an awareness raising campaign or concert.

In a similar vein to the UNCRC, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals were agreed by world leaders in order to create a better world through ending poverty, fighting inequality and battling climate change. There are a whole host of online resources available that you can use in the classroom to enhance learner awareness of the issues facing the planet and encourage them to develop ideas to tackle them.

By using the UNCRC and SDGs when teaching enterprise and entrepreneurship, we are encouraging learners to consider the impact of personal, economic and business decisions on the planet, society and individuals.

To take this learning further, you may wish to explore Learning for Sustainability (LfS), an approach to learning – and wider life – which enables learners, educators, and schools to create a socially-just and equitable society with sustainability at its heart. The Vision 2030+ report lays bare the research and reasoning, but the key takeaway is that our young people have an entitlement to learn about LfS. All schools and practitioners should demonstrate LfS in their practice, in-keeping with the GTCS Professional Standards. Establishments should have a whole-school approach to the LfS ethos that is demonstrated and supported at all levels and by incorporating enterprise education into this, you are not only ensuring learning about sustainability of the planet but also contributing to a sustainable society and workforce of the future.

Considering sustainability in another sense, once you are into the habit of incorporating enterprising ideas into your practice, you will find it flowing more naturally the next time you do it. Yes, all learners are unique, and the same ideas will not always appeal to them, but you can take ideas from previous lessons and reformulate them to best suit your young people.