3 September 2001
Teaching the future Entrepreneurs
Future Richard Bransons may have MMU to thank for their millions, according to the architects of a project to make the North West’s teachers more commercially aware.
The aptly-named BransEn Project aims to influence the way teachers teach in a bid to produce future generations of innovators and entrepreneurs.
The ground-breaking scheme, which recently won £320,000 in funding from the North West Development Agency, is a unique collaboration between the Institute for Education (MMU) at Didsbury, Manchester Metropolitan University Business School and the Centre for Enterprise Creativity and Education (MMU) at Crewe and Alsager.
MMU which trains the bulk of teachers for the region’s schools and colleges has also teamed up with Lancaster University, the Bolton Institute of FE and around 100 schools to develop the new thinking.
New and in-service teachers, at a variety of levels, will be given additional training in how to ‘teach’ entrepreneurship; to instill in children and young adults a sense of applied learning.
At all stages the 18-month programme, headed by Proefssor Kate Jacques, will be supported by the private sector, including MMU partners like NW Aerospace Alliance, the Crewe and Nantwich Chamber of Commerce and our existing network of Small and Medium Enterprises.
MMU’s Head of Regional Affairs Sarah O’Donnell, who coined the acronym BransEN – Building Regional and National Skills in Entrepreneurship, explained:
“This is a radical step in the process of preparing teachers to offer a wide range of useful skills to their pupils and students.
We want to encourage them to teach the curriculum in a new way, so if a class learn a new chemistry experiment, they also learn how its findings can be applied in the outside world. “Don’t just teach how software works, but encourage students to think about how they can make a million out of it!
That’s the message.”
