The ‘Creating a Culture of Enterprise in Education’ event being held today is the  culmination of a two and a half year project run by award-winning enterprise education    programme Rotherham Ready.

Rotherham Ready has been working with secondary schools and colleges to develop  enterprise in education from Key Stage 3 upwards. This work has included developing  resources, training models and new approaches that support schools and colleges to  champion and develop enterprise. The programme has also included work to integrate  enterprise into Initial Teacher Training (ITT). Through the programme more than 700 t  trainee teachers at Sheffield Hallam University have learned how to develop enterprise  through the curriculum through the Inspire ITT programme.

Today teachers involved in the project will meet to share their experiences and receive a  complete set of ERDF resources for their school.

They will also meet international education speaker and former Head Teacher of the  Year, Richard Gerver.

Richard, who visited Rotherham in 2009, said: “In the last year I have visited China, Brazil, India and Sweden and enterprise and entrepreneurship are firmly on the top of the education agenda in these countries. Globally, governments are looking for approaches that will develop young people’s skills and creativity, and I’m really pleased to be able to come back to Rotherham to see the work they have been developing in this area. The challenges our young people will face in the future are simply too big to ignore. As school leaders we have got to stop discussing whether we do this, and simply get on with it, as Rotherham Ready is.”

Catherine Brentnall, ERDF Project Officer added: “If we want young people to have the skills and personality they will need to succeed in the future, and if we want a dynamic economy, then enterprise needs to be a key part of young people’s education, all the way through their education. We want all teachers, no matter what age, stage or subject they teach, to be confident and equipped to make enterprise and entrepreneurship part of young people’s learning and we are incredibly grateful for the opportunity the ERDF funding has given us to help progress this aim.”

*Pictured are staff and students from Wingfield Business and Enterprise College and their business mentor from Parkgate Shopping, who worked together on an ERDF ‘Make £5 Blossom’ pilot where students honed their entrepreneurial skills through the curriculum.