In return for the money — which works out at £17,000 each year for every school — five days a year must be devoted to fostering enterprise. So over the next few weeks many schools will be busy bringing in local businesses, running enterprise projects and sending pupils out on work experience.
There are concerns, however, about how well schools will spend the money, and whether it will be spent on enterprise education at all. With an already crowded curriculum, not all schools share the government’s enthusiasm for enterprise.
David Millar, chief executive of Business Dynamics, a business-education charity that has commissioned a report into how the money is being spent, said: “While some schools are doing excellent work, it seems the majority are not. When schools are in deficit, when roofs need repairing, when the money is not ringfenced and Ofsted inspections are a light touch, there’s not going to be much accountability in terms of how the money is spent.”
A recent study by the charity also revealed that teachers are not clear on how best to use the money or how to introduce enterprise education into lessons. Various agencies are offering enterprise training, yet there is little guidance for teachers, or accreditation required for those offering it, he said.
Changing the attitudes of teachers and the system in which they operate is not going to be easy. The existing system is built to achieve the very opposite of an enterprise culture, according to Kevin Steele, chief executive of Enterprise Insight, which runs the annual Make Your Mark school enterprise competition. “The education system is not aligned to the sorts of things employers want, nor the things future employees and entrepreneurs will need to succeed,” he said.
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“Employers want people who are good at working in teams with problem-solving and communication skills, but education today is all about logic, structure, rules, standards, written communication and working on your own.”
Including five days for enterprise education in the curriculum will not be enough on its own to make a difference, according to Sue Braybrook at the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT). “To make this successful this has to be much more robust than five one-off days. It needs to be integrated into the curriculum.”
The SSAT is helping to train teachers to make enterprise an integral part of the curriculum. It also organises a network of 200 school enterprise clubs.
One such club is already well established at the Manchester Academy. The special-status school, which focuses on business and enterprise, makes sure pupils are involved in the firms that take them on.
Five students from the academy will turn up for work at local Chinese restaurant Sweet Mandarin next week to help with service, make dim sum (a selection of small dishes), prepare non-alcoholic cocktails, market the business and see how it ticks.
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Lisa Tse, who started the restaurant with her sisters, will also be giving the pupils an insight into what it is like to create a business of your own “We can show them what it’s like being an entrepreneur and hopefully help give them some self-confidence when they enter the world of work,” she said.
Jane Delfino, head of enterprise at Manchester Academy, said programmes such as these often transform the attitudes of pupils. “A lot of this is about raising aspirations and self- esteem. Many children don’t think they are worth anything and you have to show them constantly that they are.”
The academy is embedding enterprise teaching into most subjects in the curriculum from the age of 12 and is also working with a local primary school partner to introduce it for children as young as 10.
“There’s an underlying assumption in a lot of educational enterprise projects that young people are not enterprising enough,” said Steele. “In fact, young people are highly enterprising, creative and full of ideas. Enterprise education should be about helping them come up with their own ideas and giving them the confidence and skills to turn those ideas into reality.”