Education

Make Your Mark works with young people through schools, colleges, universities and youth organisations. Our educational work focuses on young people aged 14-19 in school or college, and on students under the age of 30 in Higher Education.

We believe that every young person has the capacity to make their mark by harnessing enterprising ideas, skills and talents to bring ideas to life.

Enterprise can increase achievement and bring learning to life by relating it to real life experiences. Enterprise education is motivational and can engage young people by showing them how they can make a positive contribution to their community whilst developing enterprising ideas that could make or save money.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority have a really handy definition of enterprise in education:

Enterprise capability is the ability to handle uncertainty and respond positively to change, to create and implement new ideas and ways of doing things, to make reasonable risk/reward assessments and act upon them in one’s personal and working life. It can be described as: innovation, risk-management, a ‘can-do’ attitude and the drive to make ideas happen.

What you can do:

There are plenty of things you can do to make sure your school, college, university or youth organisation is supporting enterprise actvity.

Take part in a Make Your Mark activity

Throughout the year there are a number of key Make Your Mark activities that you can involve your students in to develop enterprise skills and build enthusiasm for enterprise:

Enterprise Week

Enterprise Week, part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, takes place from 16-22 November 2008. It’s a national celebration of enterprise where thousands of activities are run by organisations across the UK to encourage people to unlock their enterprising talent. In 2008, Enterprise Week became part of the first Global Entrepreneurship Week - a worldwide celebration of enterprise, which aims to unleash young people’s enterprising ideas and address some of society’s biggest issues, from poverty reduction through to climate change.

MYM Challenge

The Make Your Mark Challenge is a free, one-day, national enterprise competition for secondary schools and colleges which kick-starts Enterprise Week.

Make Your Mark Clubs

The Make Your Mark Club is a place where students can come together to turn their ideas into reality! Whether it’s putting on a music festival, creating a design for a t-shirt or starting a social enterprise, students are given the opportunity to develop new skills, boost their confidence and take risks. The MYM Clubs are part of a national network of enterprise clubs and groups in schools and colleges across the UK, currently there are over 360!

Be an enterprising teacher!

To have an enterprising school, you need enterprising teachers

Check out S’EEN

The Schools’ Enterprise Education Network (S’EEN) is a network of Business and Enterprise Colleges, plus associated schools, colleges and academies which have a particular expertise or interest in enterprise education.

Visit the S’EEN enterprise education portal for further information about how enterprise education is being embedded across whole schools, and how schools are providing professional development for each other through their network: www.enterpriseinschools.org.uk

Join our Yahoo Group for teachers

Make Your Mark has a group for enterprising school teachers. If you’re involved in enterprise education and would like to join our informal forum, email [email protected] for further information. We have a a Yahoo group to connect all teachers who have an interest in enterprise to share news, ask questions and debate issues: www.yahoo.co.uk/groups/enterpriseeducation