The terms 'Enterprise', 'Entrepreneur', 'Enterprise Education' and 'Enterprise Training ' are considered and defined then related to the implications for educational practice. The concepts of 'private entrepreneur ', 'social entrepreneur' and 'intrapreneur' are introduced to underline the variety of contexts in which enterprise can emerge. It is postulated that everybody has some enterprise, that the amount varies over time since it is triggered by contingent factors but it is argued that the general capability for enterprising behaviour can be enhanced in educational contexts. If it is desired to create an 'Enterprise Culture' it is not sufficient to manipulate external mechanisms (e.g. offering businessstart up programmes and enterprise allowance schemes), it isalso necessary to develop individuals' enterprise competencies.
Agreement with Napoleon's suggestion that Britain was a nation of shopkeepers has not, in itself, brought about an increased consciousness in our educational system that a knowledge of the process of wealth‐creation is a pre‐requisite for the young school‐leaver. In recent years, however, it has at last become respectable to be associated with vocational education. Statements by the Department of Education & Science, the activities of the Manpower Services Commission, and curriculum innovations such as TVEI and CPVE have highlighted the potential of vocational vehicles in the work of secondary schools in particular. Tragically many curriculum changes have come about as a result of the plague of unemployment which has beset the nation; and educational thinkers and developers have been forced into a corner, there to ponder on the activities of either the young unemployed or the potentially unemployed. Sadly, the development of Education for Enterprise in Durham University Business School over the last two years was born of an unemployment disaster.
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