Entrepreneurship: The Key to Unlocking Learning

The Aldridge Foundation has published a new report, calling for more entrepreneurial thinking to be put at the heart of the education system – both in the classroom and in teacher training.

The report – “Entrepreneurship: The Key To Unlocking Learning” – sets out evidence from around the world showing that teaching an entrepreneurial mindset has a really positive impact on the overall experience of education, raises standards and gives pupils the confidence to achieve whatever they want in life.

While the Prime Minister has called for the next decade to be ‘most entrepreneurial in our history’, the CBI has warned that students are not graduating with the skills they need for the work place. In response, the Foundation argues it is time for employers and educationalists to start working together to embed entrepreneurial thinking into all aspects of school life.  

The Foundation has put forward three recommendations to the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Education:

• The new National College of School Leadership must place the tuition of an entrepreneurial mindset at the heart of teacher training, promoting innovation and the use of entrepreneurship as a cross-curricular theme
• The National Curriculum should embed the entrepreneurial mindset at the centre of school life. This should be monitored through OFSTED inspection
• The Government should convene a national forum for educationalists and employers to work together to make the teaching of an entrepreneurial mindset central to education policy and practice.

The report is backed up by a new survey, commissioned by the Foundation and carried out by YouGov, which shows teachers want to be trained in a more entrepreneurial way. 

Writing in the foreword to the report, Rod Aldridge OBE, Chairman of the Aldridge Foundation, said:

“Over recent years we have seen an increasingly polarised debate about the role and value of education. 

Business and industry say that school-leavers are not graduating with the relevant skills for life in the work-place. Educationalists emphasise the need for a rounded education to help someone throughout their life, while policymakers are anxious to see evidence of student progress. 

Given that decisions around education policy have such a profound impact on life chances, I think that it is time that employers and educationalists worked together more effectively to build the kind of education system that young people want and need.”

  You can download the report here.