Evaluation of the enterprise education in schools (EES) element of the school to work programme: final report

The main goal of Enterprise Education in Schools is to achieve a learning culture which will result in greater numbers of students equipped and enthused to identify, create, initiate and successfully manage personal, business, work and community opportunities. The principal aims of this evaluation were to: assess the effectiveness of the projects funded by the Enterprise Education in Schools (EES) element; identify barriers to the take-up of EES activities by primary and secondary schools in Australia; assess the level of awareness and appreciation of the value of being enterprising by school students, their teachers and parents, school principals and careers advisers, local businesses and community-based organisations: and suggest strategies for effectively promoting and supporting enterprise education in Australian schools.

Key findings from the evaluation include:

1. EES initiatives have been successful in increasing participating schools’ knowledge of business and enterprise.
2. Students who have been involved in EES funded activities have attained a sense of achievement, gained a greater knowledge of their own strengths and weaknesses, improved their ability to work cooperatively, increased their willingness to take the initiative and exercise responsibility, and in some cases improved their performance.
3. There is considerable support for enterprise education in schools, and the EES element has received support from people across the spectrum with potentially very different agendas, in particular from teachers and educators on the one hand, and from businesses on the other.
4. The ‘hands on’ experience of involvement in enterprising activities has clearly had the greatest impact on individual principals, teachers, and students who participated.
5. The most pressing need now is to be more enterprising about the methods of marketing enterprise education to schools, and about providing further impetus to help schools implement enterprising activities and approaches.

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