Please find enclosed our response to your Enterprise Education Review.
Firstly as you are aware following our visit to see you, Hull has a real commitment to enterprise education & the youth entrepreneurship agenda and we are looking forward to your visit in the autumn to see us and some of our enterprising young people. As you aware over the last few months we have been involved in that Review, including visiting yourselves with pupils from Malet Lambert School, Sirius Academy and Gillshill Primary to show you our Enterprise Trail Board Game that was made with young entrepreneurs and Engaging Education and we aim to have this made available for all our schools as it shows the journey a young person takes and the support available in Hull. We have now decided to work with the same pupils on turning this into an App over the coming months for Hull schools. We are also currently reviewing and developing a new youth enterprise strategy for Hull 2015 - 2020 which has at it's heart much of what you are saying in your review and we would be delighted if you would write an introduction for it - we will send you a draft copy in early September as we hope to publish it during Global Entrepreneurship Week.
We agree and support many of the principles in your review but have reservations about the implementation. Many of the problems we at the Hull Youth Enterprise Partnership have identified have been picked up on but you are seemingly going for a one size fits all approach in giving LEP's the responsibility on leading on some of this work, but we will have to see how future discussions go with our LEP (sadly we think they are not as on board with what we have been doing since they were established). We have already had a meeting, as our approach in Hull has not been just about inviting individuals and organisation in to talk or deliver enterprise, it's about embedding and encouraging teachers and tutors to link what they are doing in terms of enterprise education to the developing economic opportunities, it was for that reason that City Regeneration and Policy, Hull City Council set up with interested parties, The Be Enterprising Group, that has 200 members that meet in twilight sessions and has its own twitter @HullsEntEd and websitewww.beenterprisinghull.co.uk
It is genuinely satisfying to see more people, thanks to your review, recognising the significance of enterprise education and the increasing value of fostering an enterprising attitude through the education process, though we await the main Government response, in particular Department of Education and the new Secretary of State to your review. When we met you we were pleased that you were as passionate about what we do in Hull as we are and were pleased that you said that you were not worried about us as an area in supporting this agenda as we are already doing a great deal without significant financial investment and you recognised we have taken risks at every stage, working with many organisations.
As you know as a City we are very keen to work with national partners to give a Hull flavour, we were very successful in persuading the Premier League to adapt their enterprise programme to include Hull FC as well as Hull City AFC and that worked well. As part of this approach we welcome the Are You Ready hub model to Hull via one of our more enterprising schools Malet Lambert where all those involved have said it has been fairly easy to establish because of our work in the past. This adapting approach was recently successful when Founders 4 Schools agreed to get their speakers to promote the Big 13 Enterprise Skills when in our area and we in turn agreed to promote them to our schools and throughout Yorkshire. Arising out of our recent Youth enterprise Summit in Business Week they are linking up with other parts of the country that they were not involved
We fully endorse the proposed Enterprise Passport as a digital record of approved enterprise activities in which a student has participated at some stage in their education from primary school onwards. The ambition here is that this becomes an addition to the CV and a mark of skills competency for employers. The formalisation will help educational institutions take this seriously and future employers can use it as a selection aid, we are willing to be a pilot on this proposal as with our Be Enterprising Group we had already discussed how we establish a local passport that the young person and school/college would find invaluable to illustrate what enterprise education they had undertaken.
We wholly support the principle of recording enterprise achievements and trying to develop a pipeline through the educational system right through to employment. Our only reservation is about what makes the list of activities that are endorsed? This is not yet clear. (Though it needs to include more than just national programmes and activities as I would argue that our £5 blossom scheme linked to Big 13 Enterprise Skills is more successful for our young people in Hull than £5 and £10 programmes) We are concerned that the "Passport" may well create a 'verification' model for some forms of enterprise education that excludes local delivery, we are interested to know how it would take into account localism (It would be interesting to see if our activities in GEW would meet the criteria that we support and encourage withwww.gewhull.co.uk) It is for this reason as stated earlier we would like to be a pilot for this initiative.
As a partnership and a City we fully endorse embedding enterprise into new curriculum materials and are pleased that our 'Be Enterprising Group' are already doing this, which in turn will be linked to the City Plan and Hulls status as City of Culture 2017 (The development of these materials are to be undertaken and financed by school based enterprise activities) indeed some schools are already looking to change part of their curriculum to do this. The Be Enterprising Group through Hull City Council's City Region and Policy section are already looking to develop more training modules that in turn could lead to providing teachers with experience in a micro business run by young entrepreneurs' as part of their Continuous Professional Development.
As stated earlier our main concern is the LEP having the responsibility at a local level to lead on the proposed new national volunteer network of 'Enterprise Advisers', coordinated by the LEP's, to work closely with school heads and enlist local businesses and other occupations and professions to give pupils real-life experience of the world of work and business engagement, including emphasis on STEM subjects in order to improve industry and employability skills. (One of our young entrepreneurs, Katie Norman of Labrascals, with our support had come up with an idea of joining up STEM and Enterprise, please see Appendix 2, that we hope to establish with Huddersfield University and Hull University)
In our view we have not seen the evidence that the LEP will take onboard what is already happening on the ground (there is a chance that we go to the lowest common denominator in our LEP area that would not be good for Hull) and taking into account out expertise built up over the last ten years and of course the views of our enterprising teachers and tutors that we are currently working with, not to mention organisations such as our Patrons Claire Young's School Speakers and Foundation 4 Schools (who we have just established a working relationship with) - our approach has always been to enable young entrepreneurs to do this as they are more able to empathise with the students rather than "old men in suits" which tend to dominate our LEP who do not have the same passion for our work as you do. I have to say despite our reservations we have started talks with the LEP and hope our ideas based on our work in Hull is integral to any submission from them, indeed we are urging them to submit a proposal to you by November that will include mainly young entrepreneurs going into schools in Hull to help on the developing pupils enterprise skills and supporting teen entrepreneurs)
We are very pleased that HRH the Duke of York (we are very impressed with his iDEA Award and are looking to work with him and the Nominet Trust on this, indeed we are visiting them in their Bristol Offices this week) will be patron to a new 'E-Star' award that acknowledges universities delivering strong enterprise outcomes for their students. This seems positive, although again the devil will be in the detail. Exactly what the criteria will be and who the judges are remains to be seen, though I suspect that our new partners, Huddersfield University, will be in a good position to implement this and we certainly hope the Hull University would get involved, and that both Universities will work with us all to achieve their 'E-Star'. We would certainly urge you to take into account any response that comes from Huddersfield University as we have found them an excellent institution that has a real commitment to enterprise skills throughout their institution.
Overall there is a lot of potential in your Review - and probably that is potential to do well. Our worry is the implementation of many of these initiatives which could do more harm than, good bearing in mind the reaction we have had at times in setting up our activities and programmes; if they are done quickly and crudely then the damage will be substantial and we will go backwards in Hull. If the nuances and diversity of the world of enterprise education is recognised then actually it could be transformational in terms of the significance and coherency of enterprise education in England and we certainly, as the Hull Youth Enterprise Partnership, can play our part in the Humber area if we are allowed to do so and that those who have stated they do not want to partner us do not get to run the show, which is our worse case scenario.
As a partnership we still feel that the following should be encouraged and could be showcased as potential future ideas in any follow up report, in Hull we are going to continue to do so.
1) Establish Young entrepreneur in residence programmes - secondary schools to work with enterprise champions, supported by a named governor and linking activity between business and feeder schools using enterprise transition activities such as the game described.
2) Establish youth enterprise development companies like the one we outlined to you that is to be led by Engaging Education to give "apprentice" like opportunities to teen entrepreneurs that will also manage local young entrepreneur's speaker networks, whereby local young entrepreneurs are paid expenses to go into primary, secondary and post 16 providers to discuss the value of entrepreneurship as a career option.
3) Establish area based Youth Enterprise Banks - managed by teachers and young entrepreneurs (or current partnerships) to give grants/loans for enterprise activities linked to local communities of up to £150 a time, whereby the pupils undertake a range of enterprise activities over a three-month period. At the conclusion of the programme the school keeps 70% profit with the rest going to local partnership to further develop enterprise training programmes around enterprise skills for teachers, lecturers and apprentice tutors so they in turn can help young people to be more enterprising, and to develop visual and web based curriculum programmes linked to local economic needs.
4) Establish all age 5 to 24 Enterprise Challenges, whereby the winners of different age groups have the chance of a financial reward and get the opportunity to double their winnings when they compete against each other. Please see our example in Hullwww.hullbadgers.co.uk that has proved to be very popular with young people who have undertaken enterprise education programmes in school (this was highlighted in responses to our recent survey shown in Appendix 1)
5) As part of this approach it would be important to evaluate what the young people thought about these and all enterprise education (and indeed teen entrepreneurs) activities against the Big 13 Enterprise Skills and also to promote what was achieved via YouTube sites and written reports like we have already done in the City.
Appendix 1
As part of our consultation with partners, teachers, potential young entrepreneurs and current entrepreneurs as well as those working with enterprising young people on the Lord Young Review into Enterprise Education (and youth entrepreneurship) we undertook a survey and got the following results from 250 responses:-
90% thought the Youth Enterprise summit held in Business Week was an excellent event showcasing Hull as a place that supports it's enterprising young people and demonstrated the importance of enterprise education, it was felt that all LEP areas should hold such events each year in partnership with local authorities within their LEP boundaries.
55% of young entrepreneurs said they would support a network group of young people that could mentor each other and trade with each other; this was seen as particular importance to those who in Hull had run their businesses whilst at school.
75% said Hull was implementing the Lord Young Review already, indeed 70% said what was already happening in Hull was better than what was proposed in The Lord Young review, it is with this in mind that 90% of teachers felt Hulls developing enterprise passport was a good way forward linked to Big 13 Enterprise Skills rather than a national scheme.
80% said they welcomed the work of Hull City Council and the Hull Youth Enterprise Partnership in supporting enterprise education and youth entrepreneurship in the City. Clearly this shows the value of a bottom up rather than a top down model, as seen by the welcoming by teachers and other organisations of our revised youth enterprise strategy that brings together enterprise education and youth entrepreneurship.
85% of young entrepreneurs said they would like to see the establishment of youth enterprise incubator space for potential young entrepreneurs that included space for teen entrepreneurs that are still at school and college.
90% of young entrepreneurs said they would like to see a youth enterprise zone in the City and see a place were young entrepreneurs could sell their products and services, especially if it included space for teen entrepreneurs.
75% of teachers and pupils valued the activities and events held in Global Entrepreneurship Week in Hull as they raise the profile and outlines the importance of enterprise skills, many thought that the LEP's should fund such activities across their areas in partnership with local authorities, schools and where there is one local enterprise education partnership.
75% of teachers thought the work of the Be Enterprising Group,www.beenterprisinghull.co.uk, is essential in helping the City to teach and support the development of enterprise skills in schools, colleges and training providers and that other areas of the country should establish similar networks funded via LEP's, local authorities and raise their own funds like Hull does.
75% of respondents welcomed the Badgers Sett Enterprise Challengewww.hullbadgers.co.uk as a practical programme that enables young people still in school to illustrate their enterprise skills and business ideas. It is interesting to note that though this competition is open to young people aged 5 to 24, the overall winners in the last four years have been teen entrepreneurs, one of whom was home educated.
85% of young entrepreneurs said a peer to peer mentor group was key to encouraging more young people to consider going into business, not just a group of "older" business people going into schools and colleges to give talks. 75% of pupils wanted young entrepreneurs more than any other group to help them understand and setting up a business and wanted to know about their enterprise journeys.
85% of potential and current entrepreneurs felt that finance and mentor support was essential to help them to develop their business idea and 90% thought the youth enterprise bank www.youthenterprise.co.uk was an excellent initiative that delivers this especially as it supports Teen entrepreneurs still at school and college as well as young entrepreneurs.
Appendix 2
STEEM (science, technology, engineering, enterprise & Maths) Centre
A STEEM centre will provide STEM and enterprising outreach projects and activities for age 4+. The projects will allow people to design products using computer aided software and to produce prototypes with the help of 3D printing technology, alongside designing apps and educational games. The centre will also provide educational project days which enable people to design & programme mining robots, build fuel cell powered cars, other green energy generating devices and tools. The centre will also provide experience workshops which allow people to experience what it's like to be a wind turbine engineer, aircraft engineer, medical expert and scientists in several fields with the aid of 3D virtual reality stimulating technology. The centre will hold several business and science festivals, make it fairs, showcase days and talks for the general public on STEM and enterprising related topics by STEM companies and business experts regularly.
All workshops with be designed to encourage enterprise by taking people through product design processes and educate people on how to get their products on the market. This will include workshops on market research, finance, business planning, business registration, marketing & advertising, customer relations and networking. Some workshops will also highlight the available STEM careers and the skills required to for them.
The centre will be a support network of experts in both the STEM and enterprise fields for all businesses including start-ups. The STEEM centre will allow STEM related companies to use the centre for public engagement and outreach activities. This will allow children and the general public to understand what companies are in the area and the type of possible future STEM careers are available. Part of the centre will have to be a business support hub for all STEM related business to use for advice and guidance from experts in both STEM and business. Having this available support network will encourage youths to push forwards with their STEM business ideas. This will not only increase the economy of the future by creating new careers but encourage people to reach their true potential and get people back into work.
Aims & Objectives
To inspire more children into STEM careers and being enterprising by running related workshops and projects.
To provide training workshops and projects which encourage minority groups such as school dropouts and youth offenders to go into STEM careers and enterprise.
To have a support network of experts in the STEM and enterprising fields working together to help business start-ups succeed.
To provide a support network for STEM businesses for life to help businesses expand and keep up to date with technology advances.
To educate the public about STEM research, development, and related businesses in the UK.
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