'Culture of enterprise' lessons for the young
A drive to create "a culture of enterprise for youngpeople", partly through a sharper focus on the subject in schools, is being launched with the backing of senior business figures.
Endorsed by Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP, Ben Verwaayen of BT and Sir James Dyson, the appliances entrepreneur, the campaign is aimed at securing tougher assessment of enterprise education in schools. This would include introducing national benchmarks for the quality of such teaching and a "reshaping" of the curriculum to accommodate it.
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Kevin Steele, chairman of the body running the Fuelling Enterprise Culture campaign, which is also supported by BAE, Tesco and Ebay UK, said that enterprise education in the UK was "a patchy and ad hoc landscape", with schools following a wide range of approaches. He said: "There needs to be greater rigour, but without creating bureau-cracy that would squeeze schools and colleges that are already doing well."
Mr Steele, chief executive of Enterprise Insight, a Department of Trade and Industry-sponsored body, was critical of traditional business studies, which he described as "a ghetto". He said he heard "horror stories" about lessons where "the first thing [children] are taught is the difference between companies limited by guarantee and companies limited by shares. That must be spiritual death."
Enterprise education is a pet topic of Gordon Brown, chancellor, who has set up programmes for young entrepreneurs to visit the US or join summer schools. The Treasury believes new companies can help raise stubbornly low UK productivity levels by driving inefficient old ones out of business. The government has introduced a compulsory five days of education on business, finance and enterprise for every child during his or her school career. Entrepreneurs such as Sir James and Sir Philip Green are involved in setting up schools specialising in business-related subjects such as design and retailing.
However, the National Union of Teachers said the encouragement schools re-ceived from businesses was "patchy". An official said: "Some local companies do provide support but others say it is nothing to do with them." The union said the national curriculum was "over-laden" with subjects and that "every group wants its special concern to be part of what schools teach and that is not possible".
Recommendations on education form just one part of a prospectus produced by the Fuelling Enterprise Culture campaign. This calls on business to become more accessible to the young by "demystifying" activities such as corporate venturing and by ordering goods and services from young entrepreneurs. It is being published ahead of Enterprise Week, a series of events starting on November 13, aimed at encouraging the young to consider working for themselves.
英国创业教育“从娃娃抓起”
在一些商界高层人士的支持下，一场“为年轻人营造创业文化”的活动正在展开，其方式之一是提高学校对该科目的关注程度。
此项活动的目标是对学校的创业教育进行更为严格的评定，包括制订针对此类教育质量的全国标准，并“重新设计”课程，以与之相适应。此次活动得到了WPP首席执行官马丁?索雷尔爵士(Sir Martin Sorrell)、英国电信首席执行官本?沃瓦耶(Ben Verwaayen)和家用电器行业企业家詹姆斯?戴森爵士(Sir James Dyson)的支持。
本次名为“激发创业文化”(Fuelling Enterprise Culture)的活动，由凯文?斯蒂尔(Kevin Steele)担任主席的一家机构主办，它还得到了英国宇航公司(BAE)、特易购(Tesco)和Ebay英国分公司的支持。凯文?斯蒂尔称，英国的创业教育“水平参差不齐，随意性较大”,学校遵循着多种多样的教学方式。他表示：“有必要更加严格，但不要滋生官僚主义，给本已表现不错的学校和大学造成压力。”
