Enterprise Education
What is Enterprise Education?
"Enterprise Education is learning directed towards developing in young people those skills, competencies, understandings and attributes which equip them to be innovative, and to identify, create, initiate and successfully manage personal, community, business and work opportunities, including working for themselves."
MCEETYA
Enterprise Education is a priority area within the National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century, endorsed by the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) in 1999. It is also a key element of the MCEETYA Framework for vocational education in schools.
- The purposes of Enterprise Education range from:
- narrow views of education about enterprise (ie a knowledge of the world of work and business), or education for enterprise (ie focusing on the knowledge and attitudes necessary for self-employment or small business commencement), to
- the broad view of enterprise as an approach to teaching and learning. The broad view focuses on teaching and learning that is student-driven and authentic (usually through ways that integrate the curriculum and are delivered in authentic contexts, often in partnerships with the community).
- Enterprise Education is a way of teaching and learning, not another addition to the curriculum or a subject or an alternative curriculum. It is about developing enterprising attitudes in students. The focus is not on discrete activities, but on providing an underlying basis for delivering education across all areas of the curriculum.
- Research (in Australia and overseas) indicates that the most successful enterprise outcomes are achieved through a whole-school approach to the development of a culture of enterprise. Such schools have included it in their strategic planning with the support of teachers, parents, students, community and business.
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Enterprise Learning for the 21st Century Initiative
EL21 is an Australian Government initiative of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The initiative provides $10 million over the four years ending 2007-08 to business, industry, education and community organizations to undertake innovative projects that support young people to build their enterprise skills, think creatively and reach their full potential. The EL21 website 
has further information including case studies of all the national and state projects.
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Action Research Project
The Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training initiated a two-year Action Research Project in 2002 to Identify Innovative Approaches to, and Best Practice in, Enterprise Education in Australian Schools. Funding is being provided for 194 schools to undertake a study of their approaches to and practices in enterprise education. The project is being conducted by Erebus Consulting Partners who are working alongside school personnel in undertaking this research.
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How is Enterprise Education being implemented in Queensland schools?
The Enterprise Education approach to teaching and learning is being implemented in conjunction with Departmental initiatives, including:
- the Middle Phase of Learning
- On-Line PD Module
- Productive Pedagogies
- Programs and Initiatives
- Enterprise Education Resources
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