Developing young people’s economic and business understanding published recently by Ofsted evaluates the effectiveness of business education for 14-19 year olds in 118 schools and colleges from April 2004 to December 2007.
The report is essential reading for those involved in teaching business education courses such as economics and business studies and those who support business understanding and financial capability for 14-16 year old students. It provides useful examples of good practice and suggests websites to support business education provision.
The reports key findings highlight that in the schools surveyed:
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Business courses continue to be popular at Key Stage 4 and post-16, with the majority of students enjoying the courses and seeing them as relevant to their future economic well-being
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There was scope to make lessons more inspiring through development of the use of information technology
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Around half of the schools and colleges visited did not provide sufficient opportunities for students to engage directly with businesses and employers as part of their course
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Less than half of the schools visited had specific programmes dedicated to developing the economic and business understanding and financial capability of all Key Stage 4 students.
The report makes recommendations to Government Departments, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and schools and colleges to help improve current business education provision.
Ofsted’s recent report provides an interesting outline of initiatives introduced over the past 25 years to develop students’ business and economic understanding.
Ofsted review’s the impact of the business and enterprise specialism and highlights that:
- Compared to all specialist schools achievement and standards, and teaching and learning, in business and enterprise schools was slightly less effective. The business and enterprise specialism appeared to have the greatest impact on the development of workplace and other skills.
- The specialism made an important contribution to improving the quality of the business education curriculum, including the wider provision of business and economic understanding for all students.
- Enterprise education, including financial capability and business and economic understanding was well developed in nearly all schools.
- There was little evidence that the specialism had a major impact on improving teaching methodology in business subjects. Surprisingly enterprise education sometimes had more of an impact on teaching and learning in subjects other than business because the specialism focused on enterprising teaching.
Click here to download Ofsted’s Developing young people’s economic and business understanding report in full.
If you would like to get in touch to make a contribution to EnterpriseUpfront on how your school delivers business education please contact Emma Kerr on 0191 428 3435 or email editor@enterprsieupfront.com