As mainstream and special education school practitioners form 5 different countries, the similarity we all share, is seeing first hand that links between schools and the world of work are often very fragile, yet feel it is so fundamental for the school system to encourage work experiences, to strengthen the connection between school curricula and the workplace. The rationale of our project is to intensify the opportunities of all young people including those with special educational needs and those who are disadvantaged through their social circumstances, by ensuring they have the transferable skills and qualities to guide them through further education and into employment as employees, employers and as entrepreneurs. Pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, need to be given the opportunity to be involved and active with their peers in a safe and secure environment. This project both assists those with Special Educational Needs to access opportunities, but also, to encourage others to welcome children with disability to their activities. Basic skills in numeracy, literacy, ICT and science are essential in preparing students for the world of work and rightfully have their place on the compulsory curriculum. However we feel enterprise, embraces skills including communication, cooperation, problem solving, responsibility, creativity and initiative, which are equally as important and are often delivered but not recognised or assessed. Through this collaborative partnership we aim to make the delivery of enterprise activities easier and more relevant by creating resources which can help generate ideas, give genuine examples of tried and tested activities and provide an enterprise tracker tool which will help teachers and organisations, assess and record enterprise skills through different levels of ability. The project will directly involve 112 students, 52 of which have special educations needs, difficulties and/or behaviour, emotional and social difficulties, who will take part in mobilities. In addition, the project will also involve over 240 additional students who will be involved in activities and challenges shared over the internet in inter-school challenges. The project will also support professional development opportunities for 15 key member of staff and others incorporated into teams as information and good practice is disseminated throughout each organisation. Typical activities will involve challenges incorporating national and mixed international teams and will focus on enterprise, entrepreneurial and cultural experiences. Enterprise skills will be shared, developed and tested at all levels. Qualitative assessments will be made by all organisations leading to the final publications of resources representing mutually agreed definition of the skills which will be differentiated to represent different levels of ability. Through the collaborative experiences and exchanges of information, methodologies and pedagogy, we aim to achieve an innovative resource of enterprise activities and assessment tools which can be shared with other educational providers locally, regionally, nationally and at international levels. Potential longer term aspirations would be for education providers to appreciate the value that enterprise and an entrepreneurial attitude can add to an individual and a society, by preparing them for the future. We would like to see enterprise placed on the curriculum so all students can have the opportunity to take part in enterprise and show their creativity while gaining vital, transferable skills. We would also like enterprise to be supported by accreditation to recognise and reward the effort, skills and entrepreneurial qualities of the next generation of employee, employers and entrepreneurs.
As mainstream and special education school practitioners form 5 different countries, the similarity we all share, is seeing first hand that links between schools and the world of work are often very fragile, yet feel it is so fundamental for the school system to encourage work experience to strengthen the connection between school curricula and the workplace. The rationale of the project was to intensify the opportunities of all young people including those with special educational needs and those who are disadvantaged through their social circumstances, by ensuring they have the transferable skills and qualities to guide them through further education and into employment as employees, employers and as entrepreneurs. Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those who are socially disadvantaged need to be given the opportunity to be actively involved along with their peers in a safe and secure environment. This project both assisted those with SEND to access opportunities, but also, to encourage others to welcome people with a disability to their activities. Basic skills in numeracy, literacy, ICT and science are essential in preparing students for the world of work and rightfully have their place on the compulsory curriculum. However we feel enterprise, embraces skills including communication, cooperation, problem solving, responsibility, creativity and initiative, which are equally as important and are often delivered but not recognised or assessed. Our objectives were to help break down the barriers that restrict the opportunities of students who have SEND or who are socially disadvantaged and to help them in gaining employment. Many students find it difficult to achieve academically which holds them back when applying for jobs. Our approach is to prove our students have the ability to work by identifying a set of enterprise skills which students can use to support the development of the transferable skills required for the world of work and to demonstrate their ability to achieve . 'Linking Business, Enterprise and Entrepreneurial Skills Internationally' involved 2 special education secondary schools (UK and Germany), 1 mainstream inclusive secondary school (Italy), 1 mainstream school (Turkey) and 1 inclusive college who also have a high proportion of socially disadvantaged students from other countries (Sweden). The diversity of the group brought great advantages in breath of knowledge, hugely varied progression/employment routes, mixed approaches to enterprise and a vast variation in levels of ability of all students. The project reached over 1000 students. 90 students, took part in mobilities, many of which travelling out of their own country for the very first time. 46 of the 90 students had either SEND,were deemed as socially disadvantaged and/or had social, emotional and mental health difficulties (SEMHD). All partners worked together to show how they delivered enterprise activities and how they recognised the skills being demonstrated. We all experienced tried and tested enterprise activities as we developed a tracking tool to help students, teachers and organisations to assess and record enterprise skills at differentiated levels of ability. In addition the project also supported the professional development of 15 key member of staff and numerous other members of staff incorporated into teams as information and good practice was disseminated throughout each organisation. Throughout the project, information and methodologies was shared with other educational providers locally, regionally, nationally and at international levels to promote the uptake of enterprise education. Stronger links with local employers have been established in all countries which has already increased the numbers of disadvantaged students gaining employment (UK). For the future we would like to see enterprise placed on the curriculum at all schools so students of all abilities are able to have the opportunity to demonstrate their creativity while gaining vital skills which are transferable to match those required in the world of work. We would also like enterprise to be supported by accreditation to recognise and reward the effort, skills and entrepreneurial qualities of the next generation of employee, employers and entrepreneurs.