Secondary Schools

A complete approach to transforming

students’ enterprise skills

IntroductionHello!

As a team of teachers, we set up Enabling Enterprise to

help our students become rounded and successful. We

wanted to do more to build our students’ enterprise

skills, their understanding of the world of work and high

aspirations.

We focus particularly on eight core skills that are the

essentials: Teamwork & Leadership; Listening &

Presenting; Aiming High & Staying Positive; Problem-

Solving & Creativity.

We start by understanding where your students’

strengths and weaknesses currently lie, and then train

teachers on how to teach these skills effectively.

Building on this foundation, Enabling Enterprise builds

high levels of competence in these skills through

innovative programmes of lesson-time projects,

challenge days and trips to visit top businesses.

With Enabling Enterprise, your students could be

carrying out a debate in English with a top law firm,

designing a new brand of chocolate in mathematics, or

seeing ICT in action by working with IBM.

It’s been exciting to see the impact of our work on over

last seven years, and the growing number of students

we’ve supported – over 80,000 this year already - and

hope this booklet inspires you to get involved too.

Tom and the Enabling Enterprise Team

info@enablingenterprise.org

www.enablingenterprise.org Page 2

Why we ExistWe work to ensure that all students develop the eight key enterprise

skills and attributes they need for future success:

Page 3

How we WorkWe work in partnership with over one hundred top businesses and other

employers including:

Professional

& Business

Services

Construction

&

Manufacture

Creative

Industries

Retail &

Logistics

And many

others

Page 4

There are two parts to our secondary school programmes:

Lesson time projects

A wide selection of lesson-time projects, designed in 10 session blocks.

Each project builds on the students’ enterprise skills, whilst also linking

to learning across other parts of the curriculum.

Challenge days

Exciting and engaging days run in school, coordinated by EE staff.

Challenge days cover a range of optional topics, including introductions

to politics, business or the world of work.

Business trips

Designed to draw out the links between the lesson-time projects and the

“real world”, hosted by a business partner. Includes meeting employees

and an engaging game or simulation.

Skills assessment

A complete skills assessment

using our rigorous framework to

support students’ development.

This enables a more finely tuned

approach to focus on where the

students need the most support.

Staff training

We run CPD sessions in school

for all teachers on developing the

8 core enterprise skills.

We help teachers to run or

design successful enterprise and

work-related projects.

Our Programmes

Page 5

Foundations

Putting it into Action

By the end of Year 7

Below target: I help my team make

decisions and I am happy to support

others’ ideas.

Target: I recognise the value of

others’ ideas and try to add extra

ideas too.

Better: I am helpful to others in their

tasks and include all team mates in

discussions.

Best: I can spot when I might be

getting into an argument and take

steps to avoid it.

We use a skills levelling framework so we can quantifiably see progress

over time, rather than just relying on students’ confidence.

Foundations Part 1:

Skills Assessment

.Year 13: Target

7 13

Ye

ar

13

Year 13: Best

Year 13: Better

Year 13: Below Target

Year 7: TargetYe

ar

7

Year 7: Best

Year 7: Better

Year 7: Below Target

Example:

Working in a Team

By the end of Year 13

Below target: I reflect on the team’s

progress and make suggestions for

improvements.

Target: I can reflect and evaluate on the

team’s approaches to tasks and carefully

influence to get better results.

Better: I’m aware of the team leader’s

strengths and weaknesses and actively

support them when they need me.

Best: I understand the skills of other team

members and adapt my approach to

them.

The Impact

Through EE…

3.5 months extra progress

Above target progress

Below

39%

Above

29%

On

32%

Over a year working with Enabling

Enterprise, 96% of teachers see a change

in their students’ skills that they attribute to

the programme.

The results of the students’ skills

assessment are further evidence that this

gap can be closed:

After a year of Enabling Enterprise,

the youngest students close their

skills gap and move ahead of

expectations –making it easier to

stay on track in the future. The older

students meaningfully narrow the

gap.

This year, our Year 6 students saw

their skills gap close by 50% after

one year on the programme.

The skills gap can shrink

Students on Enabling Enterprise

programmes consistently make more

than their target 1.0 level of progress

per year. The average student made

1.13 levels of progress last year, and

established school programmes

made 1.20 levels of progress each

year.

Our students accelerate

1.09 1.10 1.10 1.11 1.13 1.14 1.16 1.17

Below

34%

On

45%

0

2

4

6

8

Start ofYear 6

Without EE With EE

Of EE

teachers

See tangible

improvements

in their

students’

enterprise

skills

96%

Our team of outstanding qualified teachers help your teachers to build

their confidence in teaching enterprise and supporting their students’

progress.

Foundation Part 2:

Staff Training

Core support includes:

• Initial teacher training: Introducing effective enterprise education

and the EE Programmes.

• Embedding the skills: Exploring your students’ skills, with practical

application for how to develop them in the classroom

• Learning walks: Supporting teachers delivering programmes in the

classroom, providing specific feedback and ideas.

• Building on the skills: Reflecting with teachers to analyse the

progress their students have made and future development.

Page 9

Wider support includes:

• Modelling and feedback:

Modelling programme

delivery, to get the most out of

EE resources, with an

opportunity to reflect.

• Curriculum planning:

Supporting teachers to plan

their projects effectively to

specific school curriculums.

• Skill focus: Maximising

progression in a particular

Challenge Skill (e.g. staying

positive or leading).

Putting it into Action Part 1:

Lesson-Time Projects

Three examples from our 60+ projects:

Maths: Racing Machines

Vehicle Manufacture

(6 sessions)

Students use their skills in shape and space to design new vehicles.

They then experiment with them, producing reports that analyse the data

on their performance.

Year 10 English: Legal Eagles

Law

(6 sessions)

Students take on the role of lawyers in a trial, planning and performing

persuasive speeches. By the end of the project, the students

understand the legal world, and the power of words.

Year 12 Business & Careers: Dreams to Reality

Enterprise

(12 sessions)

Students plan, develop and implement their own businesses. The project

provides excellent opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate

core transferable skills, which can give a boost to their CVs and UCAS

applications.

EE lesson-time projects bring your students’ learning to life. Each project

is supported by a leading business. They give your students a chance to

develop and apply new enterprise skills, while widening their

understanding of the world of work:

Page 11

Some of the Challenge Day options:

Business in a Day: Students work in teams to set up and run a their

own small company, including production and marketing.

Social Entrepreneur: Students identify a need or challenge in their

school or community, and develop ideas to solve them.

A Day in Politics: Students learn about democracy and politics through

games, including setting up their own political parties.

Chocolate Challenge: Students set up a new chocolate brand using

market research, financial modelling and 3D design.

Moon Base: Students explore the world of work by having to create a

new community on the moon from scratch.

Invest it Best: Students work in teams as trading desks, choosing and

competing to achieve the most prudent investment.

Commit to Confidence: Students experience simulated professional

scenarios to develop their confidence in applying their skills after school.

Our Challenge Days provide an exciting and engaging way for students

across a class, a year group or even the whole school to work together

and use their enterprise skills.

The challenges include everything you need to make the day a success,

with videos to launch each section, as well as support from EE on the

day. They are also linked to curriculum outcomes.

Putting it into Action Part 2:

Challenge Days

Page 13

Law in Action: Students turn around a failing legal firm by bidding for

cases and exploring how the law and morals interact.

Focus Focus: Reflecting on their own skills and the careers they are

interested in pursuing.

Our business trips help students to make the link between the enterprise

skills they are developing in the classroom and how they are used in the

working world.

The trips include the chance to work with volunteers from the business,

as well as taking part in a game to give a flavour of the industry.

We run trips to over 80 businesses and employers. Some examples are:

Putting it into Action Part 3:

Trips to Businesses

Société Générale

International Business

Students visiting the offices of French investment bank Société Générale

are quickly immersed in the world of international business. Meeting a

variety of volunteers from across the world, a trading game explores how

the global economy functions.

Birmingham Airport

Transport

Students learn about Birmingham Airport and the huge range of different

roles that people have at an airport. They apply their learning by

designing new branding for one of the airlines they meet.

London Business School

Careers in Business

Students visiting London Business School are spoilt with the range of

business professionals that they are able to talk to. The day gives

students the chance to explore different industries, from advertising to

engineering, before working with MBA students to create “career maps”.

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Get InvolvedWe are now able to work with schools

across England from our bases in

Birmingham, London and Manchester.

We have a full range of partnership

packages available according to the

priorities of your school.

To set up a phone call or meeting,

please don’t hesitate to email us at

info@enablingenterprise.org

Alternatively, find the right contact for

your region at:

www.enablingenterprise.org/contact

Page 17

Enabling Enterprise have worked in partnership with Heartlands

Academy for the past 3 years.

It is evident that our students have grown in confidence and are

developing the skills and knowledge to seek information about their

future choices. Students are aware of routes into employment and

the skills and character attributes required to be employable.

As well as student achievement, our continuing engagement with

Enabling Enterprise not only supports and benefits our students,

but our academy as well, contributing to our Outstanding Ofsted

rating.

- Community Director, Heartlands Academy

“

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Enabling Enterprise is a not-for-profit partnership of schools and

businesses transforming students’ enterprise skills, experiences of

the working world and aspirations.

Contact us:

info@enablingenterprise.org

London | Birmingham | Manchester

www.enablingenterprise.org© Enabling Enterprise | all rights reserved