Scottish Government

DETERMINED TO SUCCEED: ENTERPRISE IN EDUCATION
Scottish Executive Response

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MINISTERIAL FOREWORD

FIRST MINISTER, MINISTERS FOR ENTERPRISE, TRANSPORT AND LIFELONG LEARNING & EDUCATION AND YOUNG PEOPLE

Encouraging enterprising values - a 'can do, will do' attitude - in our schoolchildren is not just about producing the business people and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. It is the route to a more enterprising Scotland, where all our people understand the contribution they can make as citizens, both to society and the economy. And where individuals have the self-confidence and belief in their ability to succeed in whatever they choose. That means it is a fundamental element of ensuring Scotland's future competitiveness. It is also central to our goal of a more inclusive Scotland, where we are narrowing the opportunity gap. We therefore welcome the report of the Education for Work and Enterprise Review Group and commend them for their farsighted and detailed review. Their report, 'Determined to Succeed', has been an invaluable contribution to the thinking underpinning the new Lifelong Learning Strategy; indeed, the philosophy of Enterprise in Education forms a key component of our plans for learning and education in the next five years and beyond.

The Review Group has signalled that a step change is required in the scale of our delivery of Enterprise in Education if we are to instil the necessary culture of enterprise in our young people and effectively support the transition from education to the workplace. We are prepared - and agree the case - for this level of change and the Executive has made available some 40m over the next three years in order to help deliver it. This level of financial commitment - which will retain Scotland's position at the forefront of Enterprise in Education in the UK - is a signal of our determination to make a difference.

But the Review Group is correct to recognise that this cannot be a task for the Executive alone. It requires a tripartite partnership involving the business and education communities as well. Both groups are already working together to deliver Enterprise in Education and the Review Group have highlighted many areas of best practice. This, though, is only a beginning.

The response that follows makes clear that we have agreed a partnership with Schools Enterprise Scotland Ltd; they will act as expert advisers in agreeing and developing our programme. As a result we shall have access to some of the best thinking among Scotland's business people and entrepreneurs.

And this is important. We want all pupils in primary and secondary schools to enjoy enterprise activities that encourage a sense of responsibility, recognise strengths and achievements and contribute to their development. We want all pupils in primary and secondary schools to have access to a range of vocational and entrepreneurial experiences - from workplace training, to understanding and running a business - so they can go on to be successful employees, employers and entrepreneurs. In short, we want to help get young people ready for work - an aim entirely consistent with the National Priorities in Education.

Our vision is for our programme of Enterprise in Education to give pupils the wide range of experiences needed to increase their self-confidence, to motivate and to provide them with an understanding of the world of work and the opportunities that are open to them. The result should be more positive attitudes towards school and learning and skills development beyond school, improved attendance, and increased levels of qualifications - as well as a determination to succeed. These characteristics are a pre-requisite of our economic development and in addressing a lack of economic activity and low skills will be essential elements in tackling social exclusion in Scotland.

So we accept the recommendations in 'Determined to Succeed'. We shall want to work closely with the business and education communities in delivering them. Our response to each of the 20 recommendations is set out in the following pages.

Jack McConnell, MSP First Minister	Iain Gray, MSP	Cathy Jamieson, MSP

RECOMMENDATIONS

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.

THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY'S COMMITMENT

4 The Federation of Small Businesses, the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, the Entrepreneurial Exchange, the CBI and other business organisations must each identify at least one individual champion for Enterprise in Education. These champions and their organisations must work together in partnership, with the Ministerial Strategic Forum (Recommendation 17), to improve the extent and the quality of business involvement in Enterprise in Education at national level.

5 Building on what already exists, the Scottish Executive with partnership funding from the business community, must provide financial resources for appropriate experiential entrepreneurial activities in all primary, secondary and special schools.

6 The Scottish Executive, with partnership funding and support from the business community and others, must provide financial resources for the appointment of an enterprise development officer in every school cluster in Scotland to develop and implement plans for Enterprise in Education.

7 Strategic partnerships, which take account of existing good practice, must be established between local authorities and Careers Scotland to engage with local businesses and organisations to improve the provision of Enterprise in Education and to ensure the business community is more fully involved.

8 There must be a major expansion in the involvement of businesses in our schools. All primary, secondary and special schools must develop partnership agreements with local businesses and other appropriate organisations. A target should be set that within every school cluster there must be no less than five such partnership agreements by 2006. This would represent a target of 2,000 such agreements across Scotland.

9 The Scottish Executive, in association with business and other partners, must sponsor an annual National Award scheme that recognises and promotes excellence in Enterprise in Education,
and builds on current award schemes.

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.

16 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.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION

17 A Ministerially led Strategic Forum must be established and meet twice yearly to ensure the implementation of all the recommendations in this Report, with appropriate target dates.

18 The Scottish Executive must include, within the measures and indicators underpinning the National Priorities for Education, appropriate indicators relating to the outcomes of Enterprise in Education.

19 All local authorities in their Education Improvement Plans and schools in their School Development Plans must make clear how they will implement the recommendations in this Report and develop Enterprise in Education in the context of the current National Priorities for Education.

20 HMIE, working with other key agencies, must produce a set of Quality Indicators for Enterprise in Education for use in school inspections, taking close account of the National Priorities for Education indicators referred to in Recommendation 18.

EXECUTIVE RESPONSE

ENTERPRISE IN EDUCATION - REVIEW OF EDUCATION FOR WORK AND ENTERPRISE

EXECUTIVE RESPONSE

We agree. There is already much good practice in this area - for example, the Schools Enterprise Programme through which primary school pupils experience quality enterprise projects. We agree the case for an expanded programme on these lines, extended to include pupils in secondary schools. This programme will be at the heart of our approach to delivering the step change in Enterprise in Education.

We plan to work closely with local authorities and the business community. Local authorities should be able to develop their own plans for delivery, on the basis of a range of criteria/guidance we shall offer. We shall invite local authorities to work with us to develop proposals - 'Enterprise in Education Plans' - detailing how they will develop and deliver the programme in their area.

We agree that business case studies for pupils in S5 and S6 should be an element of the local authority Enterprise in Education Plan. We will ask Learning and Teaching Scotland to work with others to develop this resource.

We agree. There are excellent models already in existence on which to build and from which to learn. We must ensure that the quality of such work-based learning is high: failure to do so means we risk young people's experiences of learning through work being negative, and turning them off the prospect of work. Local authorities and employers will have to commit time and effort to ensuring that each young person, including those who may need some additional support, derives benefit from his or her placement, and this means we have to place quality at a premium over quantity. So while we recognise the Group's call for this opportunity to be available to all pupils over 14, we must acknowledge that this scale of work-based learning may take some time to achieve. Pending the delivery of suitable numbers of work-based placements,
we should continue to take advantage of the vocational opportunities available. We shall expect local authorities to describe in their Enterprise in Education Plans how they will deliver work-based vocational learning in their area.

We agree. Parents and carers have a critical role to play in the education and development of their children. They need to understand the aim of, and be enthused by, Enterprise in Education. We hope parents and carers will contribute to the delivery of Enterprise in Education in schools: this could be through direct, hands-on, help; or by supporting their children at home. A communications strategy will be one element in delivering parent and carer commitment: we will ask local authorities to address this important issue in their Enterprise in Education Plans.

We agree. Without sustained business commitment, Enterprise in Education will be ineffective. Scotland's business community has already contributed a great deal to existing enterprise experiences in schools, but we need now to expand upon this firm foundation. We agree that those in the vanguard of the business community need to set an example that will inspire others to follow their lead. Business champions are the right people to convince their peers of the importance of enterprise education. We shall work with Scotland's business community to seek nominations for, and develop the role of, business champions. Our partnership with the private sector will give us access to the very best in enterprise and entrepreneurial advice; and we shall look to them to engage their peers in the business world on our roll-out of E in E. In the light of the role that Trade Unions' learning representatives might have in promoting E in E in the workplace, we will seek STUC participation in the Forum.

We agree. Allowing schoolchildren hands-on experience of business and enterprise activities - and recognising the value of so doing - is at the heart of what Enterprise in Education is about. The report has highlighted a number of good examples of what can be achieved by pupils running their own businesses in schools - with the right kind of financial and adviser support. We will ask local authorities to address the provision of such experiences in their Enterprise in Education Plans, setting out the contribution their business partners will make both to matching our pump-priming funding, and to delivery. Any profits resulting from the school's programme should be re-invested for use in subsequent years.

This recommendation calls for business to match the funding set aside by the Executive over the full three years of the programme. We are delighted already to have secured a significant contribution from the Hunter Foundation, that we have matched, thus increasing our funding for 2003/04 to 9m. We shall continue to discuss with the wider business community how such further resource might be secured.

We agree that the appointment of Enterprise Development Officers (EDOs) could be an effective means by which local authorities ensure Enterprise in Education is driven forward in their area. The financial resource necessary to allow the appointment of an EDO for some 400 secondary school clusters is considerable, and the swift recruitment of the right people will prove a challenge. Nevertheless, we are happy to commend an approach that has been successful in the past and have made available substantial resource to contribute to the appointment of EDOs. But we do not want to confine local authorities towards a particular solution, and are willing to discuss with them alternative means by which their infrastructure can be supplemented to ensure that enterprising and entrepreneurial thinking thrives in our schools. We expect local authorities to set out how enterprise education will be led at the school level in their Enterprise in Education Plans and what resources they plan to make available to deliver it.

We shall pursue the recommendation for match funding from business in the discussions to which we refer in the response to the previous recommendation.

We agree it would be helpful to formalise engagement between local authorities and the business community in a strategic partnership; and we agree that Careers Scotland should feature in any partnerships subsequently developed so as to ensure that its key facilitating role in 'brokering' enterprise in education is reflected.

We will ask:

• local authorities to ensure their Enterprise in Education Plans make clear how the requisite business/education/wider community links are to be formalised;
• the Enterprise Networks to promote the value of participating in Enterprise in Education to the business community through, for example, Local Enterprise Companies and Careers Scotland Local Advisory Boards, and to raise the profile of the enterprise agenda throughout its LEC community;
• the STUC to consider how it might participate in promoting E in E.

We agree on the need for a significant increase in the involvement of the business community in all our schools. Local authorities, schools and business champions should work together to that end, and should aim for partnership agreements to formalise their engagement. The Review Group's recommendation for a target of 2,000 such agreements by 2006 is a challenging one and requires a considerable commitment from the business community. We agree to set this national target, and will ask local authorities to set the establishment of business partnerships as milestones in their Enterprise in Education Plans. As an additional means of securing business involvement, we shall also ask the local authorities to involve local economic fora in the development of those plans.

Finally, we shall ask our private sector partners to help wherever possible in encouraging local and national businesses to participate in such partnerships.

As the Review Group recognises, there is a number of existing awards recognising excellence in Enterprise in Education. The Scottish Executive currently sponsors the Scottish Education Awards, now in their second year. These awards were established to promote excellence and celebrate success in Scottish education and are run by the Daily Record, with BT Scotland and CBI Scotland as key partners. But there are other high profile awards (such as the Skene Awards) and national events (such as those run by Young Enterprise Scotland) that promote E in E. It would be desirable to have a single national award and event to promote and celebrate excellence in E in E. We propose to pursue this aim with the stakeholders involved in delivering existing events.

We agree. The Scottish Executive will commission the necessary work from Learning and Teaching Scotland, including the development of the case studies referred to in Recommendation 1.

We agree. The Scottish Executive will again commission the necessary work from Learning and Teaching Scotland.

We agree. There is relatively little research on this topic and it is important to understand young people's actual experiences of the world of work in order to maximise the relevance of our programmes on this aspect of education. We will commission such research.

We agree that partnership working is essential to deliver the Enterprise in Education agenda and that the dissemination of good practice is essential to encouraging wider participation in schools. We want to ensure that there is the fullest possible information available to support those who want to do more but are unsure how to approach this agenda. We shall consider the possibility of using electronic media as a tool to enable local authorities and schools to share good practice. Careers Scotland's facilitating role means it is ideally placed, both to spread best practice and to offer guidance. We will also ask HMIE to consider how they can contribute (see also recommendation 20).

Additionally, we shall consider the need for a process, informed by the educational and business communities, that can both assure the quality of the Enterprise in Education products made available to schools; and prevent duplication of effort as these products are developed.

We agree. The Scottish Qualifications Authority aims to design, assess and quality-assure qualifications that meet candidate and customer demand and are fit for purpose, being both relevant and credible. We will therefore ask SQA, in co-operation with other organisations such as Learning and Teaching Scotland, to review and, where appropriate, improve provision of Enterprise in Education within the NQ framework.

The current Guidelines for Initial Teacher Education Courses in Scotland include a range of competencies that student teachers must have acquired during their initial teacher education. These include, among others, the requirement that student teachers must demonstrate a knowledge of, and the ability to play a part in, education for enterprise and, when appropriate, vocational education. We shall consider how this guidance might be developed, and how specific training might be made available.

Appropriate CPD opportunities that develop teachers' understanding of enterprise, and how to bring that to pupils, should be provided as part of the wide variety of activities that teachers can undertake throughout their careers. We will ask local authorities to consider the development, either by themselves or with other providers, of appropriate enterprise experiences that will meet the range of needs of teachers from different sectors and in different stages of their careers. We will ask local authorities to ensure their Enterprise Development Plans make clear what CPD will be available to teachers.

Developmental opportunities of this kind might also be usefully made available to headteachers since they can be such a positive force for delivering E in E in their schools.

We agree on the need for close oversight of the development and delivery of Enterprise in Education. We have agreed a partnership with Schools Enterprise Scotland Ltd. The experience of the Schools Enterprise Scotland board members in ensuring effective delivery of the Schools Enterprise Programme will stand us in good stead as we implement E in E. Moreover, we shall through the enthusiasm for and commitment to E in E among our private sector partners, be able to reach a wider business community, with the aim of promoting new involvement in E in E.

The National Priorities in Education already cover key outcomes relevant to Enterprise in Education. We have already built scope into the school improvement agenda to capture progress against those outcomes, and in particular to survey employers' and school leavers' views so that we can check what progress is being made on preparing young people for their future careers. We are keen to work with employers and local authorities to make sure that we are using these surveys and other measures of performance to best effect to track progress on Enterprise in Education.

We will look again at the inclusion of new measures and indicators when the National Priorities are reviewed in 2004.

We agree. Local authorities' annual statements of improvement objectives and schools' annual development plans should cover how they plan to deliver the National Priority outcomes for education. These include key outcomes on core skills for pupils, pupils' attitudes and expectations, and encouraging creativity and ambition. Enterprise in Education obviously has a key role to play in delivering these outcomes. Schools and authorities will have to set out in their plans the approaches they intend to take to improve education for pupils, and report on progress in delivery. And of course fuller detail will appear in the local authority Enterprise in Education Plans that we propose as a means of detailed planning for delivery.

We agree. We will approach HMIE to review existing indicators relating to Enterprise in Education and ask that they make any necessary changes to reflect the other recommendations in this report, as a resource for schools' self-evaluation and external audits. We will also ask HMIE to consider how revised indicators might best be disseminated and promoted.