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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background
1.1 Enterprise is high on the political and policy agendas in Scotland. The Joint Statement, a partnership for a better Scotland, (Scottish Labour Party & Scottish Liberal Democrats, 2004) sets out the vision for a Scotland "where enterprise can flourish, where opportunity does exist for all and our people and our country have confidence to face the challenges of a global society". The Joint Statement declares that: "We will direct our support for enterprise in a way that encompasses all of Scotland's communities, both urban and rural".
1.2 Following the recommendations of the Review of Education for Work and Enterprise set up in September 2001 to " enable young people to develop positive, enterprising attitudes" (Scottish Executive, 2002), the Scottish Executive set out its Determined to Succeed ( DtS): Enterprise in Education ( EinE) strategy (Scottish Executive, 2004a) which aims to prepare young people for the world of work through enterprising and entrepreneurial learning, work-based vocational learning and appropriately focused career education.
1.3 The DtS strategy is a significant component of the National Priorities in Education: Learning for Life - National Priority 5, which aims "to equip pupils with the foundation skills, attitudes and expectations necessary to prosper in a changing society and to encourage creativity and ambition" (Scottish Executive, 2003). The National Priorities in Education Performance Report 2003 highlighted the Review Group's conclusion that
"The development of enterprise was the key element which should be given fresh and clear emphasis … too few young people have the opportunity to experience enterprise activities."
1.4 Education and lifelong learning are considered to be pivotal to developing an enterprise culture. The former Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning stated that:
"We need to have a creative and imaginative approach to enterprise in education. That way, young people will be enthused by the business world and have the chance to realise their potential - at work and in life" (Scottish Executive, 2004c).
The Joint Statement articulates several commitments to enhancing educational provision including the following:
"We will build on the Scottish Executive's 'Determined to Succeed' strategy, to develop an enterprising attitude and understanding of the world of work …We will encourage local authorities to give school pupils the opportunity for hands-on enterprise initiatives … We will make sure that every pupil has the opportunity to learn entrepreneurial skills at school. We will expand the number of Scottish schools involved in Enterprise in Education from ten per cent to 100 per cent."
1.5 The Minister for Education and Young People supported the aims of the EinE strategy, emphasising the need to help all young people to become more enterprising by teaching them how "to take calculated risks, and to accept failure as something from which they learn" (Scottish Executive, 2004b).
1.6 The DtS strategy sets out the key changes needed to encourage a more enterprising culture - a "can do, will do" attitude - among all school children in Scotland. It challenges all Local Authority ( LA) Education Departments in Scotland to work together with schools, business organisations, businesses, and other parts of the community to design and implement their own delivery plans setting out their targets and time-tables for action. The plans can respond to local needs but are also required to address the national criteria of developing young people's enterprising skills across four equal components: enterprise, entrepreneurship, work-based vocational learning, and careers advice, information and guidance. The Scottish Executive has made available a total of £86 million over a five year period (2003-2008) to fund the implementation of the DtS strategy.
1.7 The National Foundation for Educational Research ( NFER) was commissioned by the Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department at the Scottish Executive to carry out an evaluation of the implementation process of the DtS: EinE strategy, which constitutes phase 1 of the national evaluation of DtS. This took place between September 2004 and August 2005. This final report presents the findings of this evaluation.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE EVALUATION
1.8 The overall aim of this evaluation of DtS was to gather and analyse the views of key stakeholders in order to understand how the DtS strategy had developed the EinE infrastructure through training and development, communication, curriculum design and revision, management, programme logistics and leadership. It also aimed to explore how successful inter-agency working had been.
1.9 More specifically, the key objectives of the study were:
- To map the types of interventions planned or organised by LAs and other key stakeholders in order to develop a typology of implementation models of the DtS strategy across authorities and/or participating schools
- To monitor the levels of actual activity relating to the DtS strategy across the 32 LAs, including numbers and types of schools and pupils targeted, level of business involvement, training and development activities, and inter-agency working
- To evaluate the extent to which LAs have made progress against their local delivery plans and the types of good practice that have been identified; in addition, it would assess the strengths and weaknesses of interventions and different implementation models from stakeholders' perspectives.
METHODOLOGY
1.10 The evaluation of the implementation of the DtS strategy was based around a qualitative methodology in order to enable the research team to monitor, map and evaluate key stakeholders' views and experiences of the DtS implementation process. It consisted of four distinct, but interrelated, research methods. These included:
- Strategic interviews: face-to-face meetings with 12 key representatives of the Scottish Executive policy team, HMIe, Learning and Teaching Scotland, Careers Scotland, and the SQA
- Desk study: collection and review of all 32 LA delivery plans, research reports relevant to EinE across Scotland, and any other relevant recent publications from within the UK relating to good practice in the initial planning and implementation of enterprise learning and other relevant initiatives
- Interviews with all 32 LA co-ordinators: telephone interviews were carried out with 26 LA co-ordinators; the remaining six LA co-ordinators were interviewed face-to-face as part of the case study visits
- Case studies: visits to one primary, secondary and special school in six Las. In order to ensure a good cross-section of authorities, six were selected in consultation with the research advisory group. Selection criteria included geographical location, implementation model adopted, socio-economic context and phase of implementation (phase 1 or 2). The case studies involved interviews with 18 senior managers, 11 DtS/ EinE co-ordinators, 26 members of teaching staff and six work-related or Guidance teachers. In addition, interviews were conducted with six LA co-ordinators and ten EDOs across the six case-study areas.
STRUCTURE OF THE REPORT
1.11 Chapter 2 presents the findings from the literature review of relevant research and other publications from within Scotland and across the rest of the UK.
Chapter 3 explores the views of the 12 key stakeholders interviewed in order to gain an in-depth perspective on the perceived aims and objectives of the DtS strategy.
Chapter 4 explores the progress made towards implementing the plans based on the interviews with all 32 LA co-ordinators.
Chapter 5 focuses on schools' experience of EinE and the steps taken to implement the strategy based on the case study visits to six authorities.
Finally, Chapter 6 presents the conclusions of the evaluation and makes recommendations for the future development of the strategy. The main findings of the analysis of all 32 LA (and Jordanhill School) delivery plans are included in the Appendix 1. Appendix 2 provides an overview of the topics covered across the interviews conducted as part of this study, while Appendix 3 presents the analytical framework used to analyse the initial LA plans outlining their aims and strategies to implement DtS which were submitted to the Scottish Executive.
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