Enterprise Week: teaching for global competence

Sally Nelson, Project Co-ordinator – Creative and Collaborative Learning

As teachers, we are continually asking ourselves how we can best prepare students for our complex and constantly changing world.

Project Zero, an initiative of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, suggests that teaching for global competence is about creating learning experiences where students can investigate the world beyond their immediate environment; recognise their own perspectives; appreciate other perspectives thoughtfully, empathically, and respectfully; develop multiple ways to communicate an idea; and be prepared to take responsible action.

Students can make connections to the real world through ‘impact experiences’ which are carefully designed for engagement and experimentation. Across the Middle School journey, students engage in many impact experiences. A prime example of this is the Year 7 Enterprise Week, which occurs during the last week of Term 2. In collaboration with Illuminate Education Australia, this program provides the opportunity for students to participate in learning that is creative and collaborative and aims to empower them to become positive change agents now and into the future.

The students design a social enterprise that supports the local community, and they achieve this by undertaking project-based learning to develop a product or service; pitch it, prototype it and design a business case for it. Students work in small teams to explore and develop some of the essential knowledge, skills, attitudes and values they will need to thrive and shape their world.

Throughout the week, students use their imagination to create an innovative solution, collaborate with their team to achieve the targets set within a tight timeframe, and demonstrate courage during their elevator pitches and final presentations.

A variety of Carey’s teaching and professional staff support the students throughout the program by sharing their own expertise, knowledge, and skills. The program involves the students becoming more adaptable while developing a deeper understanding through a real-world problem-solving experience.

Student reflections from the Year 7 Enterprise Program

One thing that helped support my learning during the program was…

‘Working with my classmates and with other people like the student mentors from Deakin University.’ – Mia

‘Growing and working better in teams and collaborating.’ – Will

‘The activities such as finance, marketing, business cases, among other things.’ – Nanak

‘Learning about financials and applying maths in the real world.’ – Charlie

‘We could come up with something we were passionate about.’ – Lara

Some important skills I developed in the program that I feel I can use now and in the future are…

‘My financial skills were greatly developed and my skill in writing a business proposal was enhanced significantly.’ – Helen

‘Creativity, because I had to think outside the box, and collaboration, as we had to talk and share ideas to make our work even better.’ – Frankie

‘Expressing my ideas and viewpoints. I also improved my listening skills for other people.’ – Harvey

‘I am more confident in talking to my peers about my opinions and I’m more creative in solving problems.’ – Coco

An aspect of the program that I found most interesting was...

‘It was interesting to see how our team worked under pressure. We actually did a really good job.’ – Grace

‘I found the ideas of my peers very interesting and their perspectives on solving these problems.’ – Joanna

‘Inventing something that would help others.’ – Halim

‘Creating a social enterprise that I am passionate about.’ – Sienna

‘Everything overall! Being able to create an enterprise has been really fun and we got to take lead ourselves.’ – Mackenzie