#WeAreInternational: Celebrating our international reach

This July is all about celebrating our international reach here at The Women’s Organisation and so we couldn’t pass by the opportunity to highlight the fantastic work undertaken by our Enterprise Evolution team.

Our consultancy services take the Enterprise Evolution team all over the world helping businesses and entrepreneurs to reach their full potential through mentoring, evaluation and enterprise education, to name just a few.

Since the launch of Enterprise Evolution, our principal consultants Alison Price and Lisa McMullan have travelled far and wide, including notable trips to Asia visiting teams in Thailand and China. They have also travelled across Europe, visiting Brussels, Spain and Norway, as well as Slovenia, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Ireland. Not forgetting Edinburgh, Wales and London at home in the UK.

Transnational Partnership Meeting in Drammen, Norway, 2015

Another meeting in Maribor, Slovenia, 2016

Most recently, Alison’s work took her back to China, where she was asked to share her approach to staff development with the Shanghai Customs College.

Shanghai Customs College – Uniformed staff and Alison, 2018

 The question as to whether entrepreneurs (like leaders) are “born or made” is often asked.  But after some years of debate, this discussion is finally settled as UK Universities and Colleges embrace enterprise education into their teaching to support the future ambitions of their students.  But the next question is then, who is this for? …surely not every student needs to be enterprising?

Alison feels that her work in China answers this question clearly, having been asked to share her approach to staff development with the Shanghai Customs College.

With 2000 students focused on their ambition to work in customs, the Shanghai Customs College invited Enterprise Evolution to develop a staff workshop that would help staff develop an entrepreneurial mindset within their learners.

Graduates from Shanghai Customs College typically work in airports and commercial shipping, but with many supporting private companies with trade and export, recognition of the need to be enterprising is clear, and the opportunities to set up consultancy services are increasing.

Staff welcomed the opportunity to work with Enterprise Evolution to experience entrepreneurial approaches to teaching and consider how to adapt these for their own teaching.

With strong links between The Women’s Organisation and partners in Shanghai (and Liverpool and Shanghai being “twin” cities) this work deepens the connections between the two cities and supports the enterprising spirit.

Alison was also invited to open the 2nd International Conference ICEEE (International Conference Entrepreneurship Education Ecosystem) speaking to 200 educators about the need to embed entrepreneurial teaching methods into their subjects.  Sharing case examples and practical experience, Alison shared the latest approaches from UK and Europe, such as QAA (2018) Guidance (translated into Chinese) as well as Entrecomp (see other blog) before providing support and resources to delegates by showcasing ETCToolkit www.etctoolkit.org.uk

She was joined from the UK by keynote speaker, Emma Robinson, Head of the Centre for Entrepreneurship at Liverpool John Moores University who provided an overview of their institutional growth and experience of supporting students to start, followed by a 2-hour workshop, that shared the realities of LJMU practice. 

Emma said: “As my second opportunity to address this conference, I was delighted to seek the progress made in creating a clear direction for enterprise education.  It is brilliant to share the LJMU story in order to support others as develop their own approach and I applaud the organisers for their focus and vision in supporting colleagues on this journey”.

There was also an opportunity to run the CEO course “Creating Entrepreneurial Outcomes” providing a 2-day structured programme of staff development and support.  Working directly with staff to change their teaching is one of Enterprise Evolution’s specialisms. 

Alison said: “It’s great to share “tried and tested” approaches with colleagues around the world and see how they can bring entrepreneurial teaching techniques into their own teaching.  I have worked with a whole new range of subjects since working in China (Maoism and Customs to name two and I thought I had worked with them all before that!) so it is great to how enterprise can be embraced by educators to help all learners”.

To find out more about Enterprise Evolution, visit: www.enterpriseevolution.org.uk/

You can also follow our international experiences and find out more about what The Women’s Organisation’s team have been getting up to on Twitter using #WeAreInternational