Enterprise in Education and Skills for Scotland Bringing the Lesson to Life: Business Brains for a Material World

“ ..young people’s education, from the early years of a child’s life through their compulsory education, coincides with a period of rapid development and lays the foundations of skills for life and work . What they learn and how they learn have a major bearing on wider outcomes including employability and participation in society in later life” Skills for Scotland – A Lifelong Skills Strategy

Enterprise in Education depends on really creative partnerships with employers which bring other worlds of work into the classroom and ignite the imagination of young people, teachers and employers.  This seminar will demonstrate elements of the national training programme on employer engagement, show inspirational video clips of partnership working and signpost the next steps in developing your own mutually beneficial relationships with industry and business.

Pupils and teachers from St Ninian’s High School will share with delegates their experience of developing a successful and sustainable business engagement, based on their cross-curricular project Business Brains for a Material World.

Design Company BooBoutique have been working with St. Ninian’s High School in Kirkintilloch since October 2006. In this project pupils from the Art and Design and Business Education departments are provided with a real context (textiles for bag design) to develop and practise many of the skills and qualities that will be indispensable to them in adult life and the world of work. The project gives them the opportunity to work in the classroom with creative entrepreneurs and makes learning and teaching more exciting, engaging, stimulating, motivating and much more relevant. Working with business partners builds pupils confidence, develops their business and personal skills and encourages enterprise and financial literacy. This three year project will allow pupil progression from S3-S4-S5/6. Working with BooBoutique teaching staff have developed their skills and confidence in Computer Aided design and designed briefs and case studies to be built into a 3 year plan.

Jean MacMillan
Jean joined Scottish Government in October 2005 from her substantive post as Depute Headteacher in St Stephen’s High School in Inverclyde. 

Her responsibilities as a Senior Adviser have included working with a number of Local Authorities and Jordanhill School, supporting them in the delivery of   Determined to Succeed – the Scottish Governments Strategy for Enterprise in Education.

Jean has been involved in developing relationships with a range of people responsible for the delivery of the strategy.

She has been instrumental in devising a range of opportunities which make it easy to share effective practice. Many teachers are now members of her Enterprising Practitioner Network.

Through her own experience she has provided help and support helping stakeholders to develop creative solutions to the management of change.

She has strategic responsibility for enterprise CPD and has recently been working on an innovative and exciting project to provide a range of resources for teachers and employers to support their partnership working.