Scottish teachers at the vanguard of several new education programmes focusing on entrepreneurial skills won plaudits this month at Scotland’s Enterprising Schools’ (SES) prestigious annual awards
SCOTLAND’S Enterprising Schools – a government-backed initiative which helps equip young people with a range of entrepreneurial skills – recently held its annual awards celebrating the efforts of teachers and pupils.
Run by Young Enterprise Scotland, the group provides teaching resources and training to encourage schools to embrace enterprise education, or ‘learning by doing’, to inspire students to follow their own path after secondary education.
Julie Degnan, SES’s Project Manager, said: “As the world of work changes rapidly, many of the jobs young people will do when they leave school do not yet exist and they will probably have several jobs during their lifetime.
“They need to have the skills and attitudes to cope with an unpredictable future after school, to be able to deal with setbacks and disappointments in a positive way and to continue to learn for the rest of their lives. This is one of the key reasons why Scotland’s Enterprising Schools was established.”
Now in their second year, the SES annual awards play an important role in celebrating the achievements of teachers and their students through enterprise programmes, as well as sharing experience and inspiring others. This year, teachers at two exemplary schools won the top honours for the work they have been doing to forge a path for tomorrow’s entrepreneurs.
Currie Community High School was named Scotland’s Most Enterprising School, while Pauline Cumming Depute Head of Broughton High School picked up the award for Most Enterprising Educator.
At the heart of both awards were two enterprising projects that have successfully linked careers and entrepreneurial skills to the learning journey of the students.
Nominated by Edinburgh City Council, Currie High has been encouraging students to take part in a range of career and leadership-based activities. What stood out for the judges of the SES Awards, was how both students and teachers seized upon the interest for the design and build of the new Learning and Community Campus to embed enterprise learning into the school’s educational activities.
A virtual enterprise challenge was launched to design the layout of a space or piece of furniture for the new school. Following this, the students independently chose to apply for an Interior Design Consultant post, with the architects and now 27 students from P5 to S3 are working directly with the professional team on the new concepts.
At Broughton High School in Edinburgh, BRO Enterprise was first designed as a social café, but the enterprise has expanded and developed since it was first established by Pauline Cumming in 2017.
Driven by her energy and imaginative ideas, over the past four years, it has become integral to the curriculum and to the volunteering opportunities available to all students across the school.
BRO Enterprise has embraced a range of enterprising and creative projects involving growing and making food, designing and developing of products (soaps, balms, chocolates, cakes) and advertising and selling products and services.
At its heart, however, is the aim to bring people together to tackle social isolation and loneliness and after the first coronavirus lockdown, the students doubled their efforts to come up with more ideas.
This led to the creation of the Moodbooster Pack of wellbeing treats sent to students who were self-isolating and funded by BRO Enterprise. There was the introduction of Hot Chocolate Thursdays to encourage people to meet outdoors and a wonderful pen-pal scheme, which has sparked some amazing intergenerational friendships through the exchange of letters between students and elderly members of the community.
L to R, Julie Degnan (Young Enterprise Scotland), John Schmidt (Depute Head Teacher), Lucy McOuat (Young Enterprise Scotland) and (Head Teacher) and Jenny Smith (Head Teacher).
Julie Degnan continues: “The awards are designed to celebrate schools’ dedication to developing their pupils’ enterprise skills in the wider sense. Enterprising schools understand that entrepreneurship is first and foremost about creating value for others. That value can be financial but it can also be cultural or social. By actively engaging in enterprise education, pupils develop their skills, attitudes and confidence, helping them to reach their full potential in learning, life and work.
“What Currie Community High School do so well is using enterprise as a context to amplify pupil voice, enhance their school environment and wider community, and to provide breadth and choice to pupils who are exploring the world of work.
“Pauline Cumming of Broughton High School is a truly enterprising educator as she effectively models her own entrepreneurial skills, facilitating opportunities for pupils to lead change in their local community.
“She has mobilised the support of pupils, staff, parents and community partners to create and maintain sustainable working relationships to benefit all involved.”
Michelle Moore, a Quality Improvement Education Officer at CEC, said: “Learners at Currie are provided with wide ranging opportunities to experience enterprise, business and the world of work in a way that enhances the curriculum and supports them into a positive post-school destination.
“Currie is an innovative school where career education is led at all levels from skills development in the classroom to roadshows with business partners and My World Of Work ambassadors who provide peer leadership opportunities. This workstream is not a bolt-on, it is an integral part of learning for life and work at Currie. I am enormously proud of all Currie has achieved.”
One former Broughton High student said: “From the start, BRO Enterprise has been a great stepping-stone for me. Being on the committee helped with my networking skills. I had the opportunity to meet multiple people from varying walks of life.
“I experienced once-in-a-lifetime opportunities such as giving a speech on the importance of social inclusion and the work of BRO Enterprise in front of over 1,000 delegates from all over the world.
“As a law student, this was beneficial in helping with building my confidence in public speaking, a skill I will value for the rest of my life. BRO Enterprise is a community for everyone and being involved made up some of the happiest memories of life.”
This article was brought to you in partnership with Young Enterprise Scotland (YES) as part of The Herald's Future of Education campaign
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