Get into ENTERPRISE: a review

Get into ENTERPRISE, a Scottish-wide personal development programme, aimed to help tackle barriers that contribute to social exclusion. It encourages individuals to develop the knowledge, experience and skills required to consider running a business. The programme aimed to provide those who engage with vulnerable groups with a resource to begin to tackle the needs of clients, especially those between the ages of 14-25 years, whose engagement with formal education is weak. Following on from a previous evaluation, this evaluation aimed to review the Programme’s current position, its progress to date, how it coped with a changed environment, and how this may affect the way ahead.

The methodology consisted of: face-to-face and telephone interviews with stakeholders; a survey of all 12 Enterprise in Education advisers; and a review of previous reports and evaluations.

Finds that Get into ENTERPRISE is now an established ‘product’ and it is on schedule to reach its target of 25,000 participants and 4,000 tutors trained by June 2004. Monitoring client activity still presents a major difficulty. Now that Get into ENTERPRISE is run in-house by Careers Scotland, the new structure has to operate effectively. In practice, there is a spectrum of programme activity with participant involvement. Concludes that Get into ENTERPRISE has the flexibility to be a catalyst at many critical junctures in education and the community.

The management needs to continue to recognise the Programme’s evolutionary potential. Careers Scotland should liaise with Business Gateway to investigate the possibility of Get into BUSINESS being the uniform enterprise training for all new starts. Recommends that Get into ENTERPRISE engages with INSIGHT to ensure a consistent approach to monitoring activity. Careers Scotland should introduce a charge for the programme and actively manage the current transition phase. The original set of Master Trainers should be retained while the new Enterprise in Education advisers and CEETS ‘bed down’. The relationship with the online contractor should be clarified and the management need to champion the product within the matrix. Careers Scotland should lobby for the Programme to be the enterprise module of choice in teacher-training. Concludes that Careers Scotland should look at the wider strategic role of the Programme.