How do British boarding schools nurture enterprise?
While all our British boarding schools nurture enterprise via Business Studies and/or Economics courses, as well as entering students into schemes such as the Young Enterprise programme, I was struck by recent news from Charterhouse.
This coeducational boarding school in Surrey has become the first in the UK to offer its pupils an Entrepreneurship Diploma accredited by the ‘Institute of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise’ (IOEE). The Charterhouse Entrepreneurship Diploma (CED) launches this September, offering Sixth Form pupils the opportunity to gain a level 3 professional qualification in Applied Entrepreneurship, alongside their A Levels or International Baccalaureate courses. Successful completion of the CED will gain pupils 16 UCAS points – the first time such a programme has carried UCAS credits.
Head of Entrepreneurship, Sandip Patel, explains how the CED will be delivered, and the practical and theoretical skills it will offer: “The programme will have a blended delivery, mixing teaching, case-studies and AI learning – using the latest AI technology to help students with advice and feedback. The Diploma will give them problem-solving skills, adaptability and employability. We firmly believe that an entrepreneurial mindset and the skills associated with it, will benefit all pupils, irrespective of their future plans.
“The addition of AI learning is a particularly significant innovation. We know that job applicants come into increasing contact with AI during the first phases of the recruitment process. Providing our teenagers with an initial framework for how to begin working effectively with AI will be a huge support in the years ahead.”
Charterhouse’s FutureU programme, of which the CED is a key component, is delivered alongside the academic and co-curricular programmes, and provides every pupil with beyond-the-classroom courses, aimed at developing their transferable skills, real-world financial knowledge and an understanding of the world of employment.
A new facility, known as The Hub, offers open-plan, flexible spaces, providing opportunities for collaboration, risk taking, presentation and teamwork. Located right in the heart of the school, it is an important symbol of the central importance placed on this activity and a commitment to place it firmly in the school’s DNA.
If this is of interest to your budding entrepreneur or you’d like to know more about how other British boarding schools nurture enterprise, please get in touch.
