Determined to Succeed

Enterprise in Education: Background

The key document in this area is the Scottish Executives “Determined to Succeed"

Enterprise in education activity is defined as:

Develop enterprising attitudes and skills through learning and teaching across the whole curriculum
Experience and develop understanding of the world of work in all its diversity, including entrepreneurial activity and self-employment
Participate fully in enterprise activities, including those which are explicitly entrepreneurial in nature, and in which success is the result of "hands-on" participation and
Enjoy appropriately focused career education
Entrepreneurial activities are a specific type of enterprise activity. The term refers to activities that involve setting up and running a business for profit and requires a business plan, raising money, financial management, risk taking and profit sharing.

The Need for Action

There are significant reasons why we need action to promote a change in culture.
As set out in Smart, Successful Scotland (Scottish Executive 2001, 2002) there is a need for greater "entrepreneurial dynamism" in Scotland.
Comparing Scotland with other countries the authors of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Scotland 2001 (Galloway and Levie 2002) grouped the 31 nations in the study into three bands according to their "total entrepreneurial activity" as shown in Table 1. Scotland was placed in the lowest of these bands.

Table 1: National Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) Scores:

Source: GEM2001 Population Survey

The GEM Scottish study argues that, compared to other small modern nations, the environment in Scotland is not so favourable to entrepreneurial activity.   In particular, fewer people are likely to perceive opportunities to start a business, fewer people know someone who has started a business and more identify fear of failure as preventing them starting a business.   While issues of infrastructure and prevailing economic conditions influence successful business start-up, the persistent diagnosis with respect to Scotland's lower business birth rate is in terms of cultural attitudes, which are considered to be negative towards entrepreneurship and risk taking (Galloway and Levie 2002).

Comparable statistics for new business start-ups show Scotland performs poorly against the rest of the UK (although similar to Wales and Northern Ireland).   International comparisons are more difficult as systems differ in each nation.   It is generally recognised, however, that the UK is mid-ranking in comparison with the rest of the EU and significantly behind the United States.

Chart 1: Business start-ups per 10,000 resident adults

Source: Small Business Service

Scotland needs to have many more people who have the desire to set up new businesses and make them grow. People need to have the confidence and self-belief that enable them to take risks. Failure needs to be seen as something to learn from, not to be feared. More young people need to have the opportunity to meet successful young entrepreneurs and see self-employment as a career option.

Determined to Succeed Scottish Executive 2002
Review group on Education for Work and Enterprise

Summary of Recommendations from Determind to Succeed

Opportunities for Young People
1.   Every pupil from P1 through to S6 must have an entitlement to enterprise activities on an annual basis and, in addition, pupils in S5 and S6 should have an entitlement to case studies based on local or Scottish businesses.
2.   All pupils over the age of 14 must have an opportunity for work-based vocational learning linked to accompanying relevant qualifications. This will require a major commitment from Scotland's employers, working closely with local authorities and secondary schools.
3.   All local authorities must design and implement a communications strategy for raising the awareness and commitment of parents and carers to Enterprise in Education.

National Developments
10.   Learning and Teaching Scotland must review and improve all existing national guidance and support materials on "Education for Work" in order to reflect more clearly the importance of Enterprise in Education, to include enterprise and entrepreneurship.
11.   Learning and Teaching Scotland must review and improve existing guidance and support materials for work experience.
12.   The Scottish Executive must commission research into part-time work undertaken by young people while still at school.
13.   Careers Scotland and Learning and Teaching Scotland must work in partnership to develop resources and establish ways of promoting and sharing good practice in Enterprise in Education.
14.   The Scottish Qualifications Authority, Learning and Teaching Scotland and business organisations, working in partnership, must review and improve the provision of Enterprise in Education within the framework of National Qualifications.

Opportunities for Teachers
15. Enterprise in Education must be included in Initial Teacher Education programmes. As part of their Continuing Professional Development (CPD), all teachers must have the opportunity to participate in training and development in Enterprise in Education, which must include enterprise experiences at least once every two years

Determined to Succeed Scottish Executive 2003
Scottish Executive
Response
Scottish Executive
Response
 

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