There is a statutory requirement that all young people working at Key Stage 4 should experience some work-related learning, an element of which should be enterprise. This has not changed with the change in Government and budget cuts.

Students can now take a qualification in Enterprise and Employability Level 1 and 2 Certification which addresses this requirement.

The key benefits to the students are:

• Candidates gain the skills, knowledge and understanding which will prepare them for working life, now and in the future, as confident individuals and members of society.
• The enterprise activity which forms the core of the coursework encourages students to be innovative and creative, to take risks and manage them, to become financially capable and to develop a can-do attitude.
• The course enables students to develop employability skills, such as the ability to problem solve, to communicate effectively and to work well in a team.

The qualification shows that Enterprise Education and Work Related Learning is becoming more mainstream and it is great to see that learners can get a qualification and so fits in better with the schools main driver for exam results and with this course they should come away with skills and experience desperately needed by employers.

So what resources are out there to support Enterprise Education and Work Related Learning?

Principally E4A has developed two resources that can be used to support the Enterprise and Employability qualification.

They are:

• Pocket sized easy to understand business basics books on “How to Create Your Own Successful Business” and “How to improve your employability opportunities”.
• Interactive group learning system called ClassBubbles which delivers either short or full day enterprise and employability related exercises to either classes or whole year groups.

E4A enterprise activities enable each student to experience the enterprise process, learning by doing, in teams and as an individual.

Stage 1 – Tackling a problem or need

E4A enables schools to select from a wide range of enterprise day long activities from Engineering / ICT (designing a virtual car), English / Maths / ICT (designing and improving the profitability of a newspaper), Business Studies (identify local issues, create a Business plan to solve these issues using the ClassBubbles Internet based process) and many more.

Students learn to:

• Generate ideas on how to tackle problems and satisfy needs in business and social contexts.
• Use brainstorming to develop ideas and then build a successful enterprise plans from these ideas.
• Use mind mapping to form links between ideas using these to create an effective enterprise plan
• Intensive use of ICT to research and implementtheir ideas. This particularly applies totheE4A innovative ClassBubbles day.

Stage 2 – Planning the enterprise project / activity

The first part of the day on an E4A activity is the planning stage. If you fail to plan you plan to fail! All our activities provide students with:

• Practice in using financial capability and business understanding.
• Breaking down complex tasks into smaller goals building to a successful project by the end of the day.
• The need to plan and work as an effective team using the strengths of each individual.
• Achieving end results to specific time targets.
• Understanding of SWOT analysis and how to use this to maximise the chances of success in their project.
• Experience in creating a financial plan of their project.
• Preparing a team presentation highlighting the key learning and outcomes from their activity.

Stage 3 – Implementation of the enterprise project / activity

• The E4A ClassBubbles Work Related Learning activity day prepares each individual forthejob market. They learn through internet interactivity where the jobs are, how to apply with effective applications for a specific job, how to write a good CV, how to present a good job or college interview.
• Many of the other E4A day activities can be used within the curriculum to build knowledge and skills.
• Presentations can form the basis of new enterprise projects. The ClassBubbles activity can be delivered by teachers providing them with valuable CPD as all the student inputs are captured in a social networking environment and can be used for further extensions of their work.

Stage 4 – Evaluating the enterprise project / activity

• Online experience during the day provides real time experience in researching topics using search engines, finding relevant web sites, interpreting relevant information in their own words.
• Individual and team inputs to the ClassBubbles activity are captured on line and can be used as part of the evaluation of the activity’s effectiveness.

What Resources are available to you to support your delivery and make the course more interesting?

E4A is currently offering a number of free resources that can help you:

• Free pocket sized business basics book  “How to improve your employability opportunities”
• Free 1 hour ClassBubbles  Preparing for Work lesson

E4A offers the following resources:

• A whole day “Work Related Learning” ClassBubbles Enterprise challenge day activity to ensure every student actively participates in learning where thejobs are, how you find them, how you apply effectively, practices writing an effective CV and practices one to one job interview techniques. This is all achieved in one day and forms thebasis for further detailed work on job skills. >>more
• A whole day “Create your own business” ClassBubbles Enterprise day in which the students go through the process of creating a business. >>more

Special Offer

For the enterprise and employability qualification E4A is now offering a class pack of 60 books; 30 copies of “How to improve your employability opportunities” and 30 copies of “How to create your own successful business” for £150 including free postage  which is a 37.5% reduction on the normal price.

Click here to download the Order Form.