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ENTERPRISE IN EDUCATION: SME SURVEY
CHAPTER SIX: "ENTERPRISE IN EDUCATION" AS A TERM
6.1 The qualitative research attempted to gauge what respondents thought of the term "Enterprise in Education" and specifically the words "enterprise" and "entrepreneurship". We were interested both in their initial reactions and associations, and their judgements on the meaningfulness of the term in relation to the types of activities discussed in the interview.
6.2 It should again be noted that work experience was the activity that organisations were most familiar with (and most commonly participated in) hence they tended to focus on this and needed to be prompted to discuss how other initiatives related to the language used.
6.3 Interestingly organisations involved in EinE were not more informed or more forthcoming than non-participating organisations, reflecting earlier findings. Respondents found it hard to define the words enterprise and entrepreneurship, words that were not immediately meaningful to them. Enterprise specifically was linked to "thinking on your feet" and "having good ideas" - essentially taking initiative. This meaning could be applied in a general sense, not always relating to the world of work or business. Entrepreneurship was associated with "seeing gaps in the market" and "taking chances" and was certainly perceived to be mired in the world of business. Indeed, associations of the world of "big business" and "Richard Branson" dominated, as opposed to associations relating to smaller scale businesses.
6.4 When asked about how well the term EinE described the types of initiatives and activities covered in the interview, many found it difficult to reconcile business terminology with the idea of education and could not provide meaningful feedback. The reactions we received to the term varied in their insight, as the following quotes demonstrate:
"Doesn't do much for me" (NON-PARTICPATING)
"Not a lot really. I don't know, I suppose if you were to think about it in a business sense, it means we should be teaching our kids to be more enterprising in business..." (PARTICIPATING)
"School children or students at colleges, learning to sell, to use their knowledge and to value their knowledge and be able to get groups to employ them, find a business… that is it I think." (PARTICIPATING)
"Developing skills of initiative, creativity throughout the education system and developing… the self reliance, the ownership of skills by kids in education." (PARTICPATING)
6.5 Some of the reactions were critical because the term was not inspiring, and that it was felt to be too much of a hackneyed "Scottish Executive" phrase. It was also commented that the term's "fit" with work experience was not explicit given that work experience is the most well known and the most "participated in" activity in EinE. The perceived exclusivity of the term was also mentioned as a danger:
"That's talking about your higher educated kids. I don't think it's for normal kids. It's a different level….. It's the normal working class people I think that wouldn't understand that" (NON-PARTICIPATING)
6.6 Clear communication is needed therefore to address the above issues. Organisations often have not heard of EinE whether they are involved in it or not; they are unsure of what the term means, what activities are included, and whom the scheme is aimed at. This 'knowledge vacuum' is then filled with assumptions which are often incorrect. Communication - essentially an intervention to address this 'knowledge vacuum' - should have a positive effect in making organisations understand the rationale behind EinE, and ultimately persuading more to participate.
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