Visit our website : www.areyouready.org.uk
‘Are You Ready?’ began with a simple vision – to equip young people with the enterprise skills, knowledge and attitudes they need to face life in the 21st century with confidence.
Uniquely, our work targets all young people – from four-years-old right up to young adults of 19 – to ensure a progressive development of enterprise skills, qualities and knowledge. Attitudes and mindsets are formed at an early age, so it is critical that we start developing enterprising skills, qualities and knowledge in the primary years and ensure it progresses through secondary education and beyond. Our approach is to train teachers to develop enterprise through the curriculum and as part of school culture so that enterprise is not seen as a bolt on – it is seen as an approach to teaching and learning and a way of giving relevance and meaning to the curriculum and school life.
‘Are You Ready?’ won the StartUp Britain ‘Best Enterprise Support Award’ at the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in 2011 and our work has been commented on very positively by OFSTED – after HMI spent a week in 2008 looking at how we inspired schools and colleges to give enterprise education a high priority. We were also used as a case study of Best Practice in an OFSTED report in 2010.
Enterprise is more important now than ever. Changes brought on by rapid globalisation, technology and more recently, the recession, mean that young people face an increasingly complex and uncertain future.
Young people coming through education now need to know that they might have to employ themselves if they eventually want a job. They also need to develop the skills that will help them thrive in a competitive national and international jobs market.
Enterprise and entrepreneurial skills and attitudes should be an essential part of a 21st century education – read our Briefing Paper to find out more.
We’ve developed a blue print to support schools and colleges to help inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs and enterprising employees.
