The Women's Org's Enterprise Evolution Team Join Global Conference hosted in China

The Women’s Organisation’s commercial consultancy arm ‘EnterpriseEvolution’ has been given fresh opportunity to make its mark on enterprise in education in China.  While international travel has been limited due to the COVID 19 pandemic, the international consultants have been continuing to share their expertise ‘virtually’ and working with Beijing based partner, Jing Zhang have been invited to contribute to an international conference later this week.

Deputy CEO Helen Millne with Enterprise Evolution Consultants Lisa McMullan and Alison Price and CEO of The Women's Organisation Maggie O'Carroll

The Global Enterprise Ecosystem Cloud Conference taking place from 6th to 12th June will be hosted by Enterprise Evolution partner in China and will feature international speakers showcasing initiatives tackling entrepreneurship in education from across the globe.

Alison Price with Jing Zhang

Consultants Lisa McMullan and Alison Price have a longstanding relationship with Beijing Weishengchang International (BWI)colleagues.  In particular, Alison has co-created, co-designed and co-delivered the staff development programme – CEO: Creating Entrepreneurial Outcomes’.  Having received recognition earlier in the year as a finalist for a Department of International Trade Award for their partnership working, Lisa and Alison were welcome additions to the conference rosta this month, along with The Women’s Organisation’s CEO Maggie O’Carroll.

The talks, which will be free to access and will go live from 6^th June, will include Lisa’s reflections on working with research fellows to commercialise their research using entrepreneurial approaches. 

Enterprise Evolution Principal Consultant Alison Price will be drawing on her 20+ years in enterprise education policy development to discuss the evolution of policy across Europe and particularly in the UK and sharing her predictions for policy development and implementation in the coming years.

Lisa will be sharing her experiences and the approaches used to support researchers and university colleagues including her work as part of the facilitation team for with the ICURe (university of Southampton & SetSquared Partnership), SUCCESS (Aspect network) and R2I (University of Manchester) programmes.

CEO of The Women’s Organisation Maggie O’Carroll will share her journey to entrepreneurship and how her time studying in the United States drove her passion for supporting women entrepreneurs to believe in their entrepreneurial potential and be empowered upon her return to the UK.

To find out more about Enterprise Evolution's work in China click here. 

Surely Not ‘Everyone’ Needs To Be Enterprising? 💡🤔

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. The next question is then, who is this for? Surely not every student needs to be enterprising?

Alison Price, Principal Consultant at “Enterprise Evolution” the consultancy arm of The Women’s Organisation, 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.

Shanghai Customs College – Uniformed staff and Alison

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 2^nd 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 before providing support and resources to delegates by showcasing ETCToolkit

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.

“It is 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 see how enterprise can be embraced by educators to help all learners” said Alison Price

For more information about Enterprise Evolution and the work Alison and Lisa are doing be sure to follow the Twitter, and check out the Enterprise Evolution website. You can read our previous blog about all things EntreComp here. 

Enterprise Evolution Team Help Gwrp Llandrillo Coleg Take Home National Award!

Last week the Enterprise Evolution team returned to our HQ with some fantastic news – Gwrp Llandrillo Menai Coleg (GLLM) who we have been working with for the past 18 months, had been awarded the Further Education Team Enterprise Award for our work in Thailand with the British Council and Thai Department of Education.

The 2017 National Enterprise Educator Awards, celebrate the UK’s top enterprise and entrepreneurship educators annually.  This year the awards ceremony took place Glasgow, during the Gala Dinner for the 12^th International Entrepreneurship Educators Conference  which was being hosted by Glasgow Caledonian University.

The Further Education Team Enterprise Award was sponsored by Cobweb Information – the company that bring us the all-important Cobra information sheets! Representing the team on the night were Christine Evans (Head of Commercial operations, GLLM), Penny Matthews (GLLM) as well as our very own Lisa McMullan from Enterprise Evolution.

Enterprise Evolution have been working to support  Grwp Llandrillo Menai Coleg in  developing a new approach and curriculum for student enterprise and entrepreneurship in vocational education and in designing and facilitating staff development programmes. 

This work has been piloted following approval by the British Council Thailand (BCT) and the Thai Ministry of Education’s Office for Vocational Education Commission (OVEC).  Plans are to roll out the programme and activities nationally.

We were delighted to have received this award as part of the team with Gwrp Llandrillo Menai Coleg! We’ve been working hard in Thailand for the past eighteen months and it was fantastic to have this work recognised by the National Enterprise Educators Award.

We also wish our best to the highly-commended organisations in the Further Education Team Enterprise Award category – Barnsley College Enterprise Team, Barnsley College and Leeds City College Enterprise Festival and Leeds City College.

It was a fantastic evening with a great outcome for both the Enterprise Evolution team and Grwp Llandrillo Menai Coleg, so thank you to everyone involved!

Enterprise Evolution is the boutique consultancy service of The Women’s Organisation.  For more information about our work visit their website.

The Women’s Organisation Consultancy Arm Expands to Work in Thailand!

Enterprise Evolution, the consultancy arm of The Women’s Organisation is continuing with its international work, having just completed a British Council Funded project in Thailand.

Enterprise Evolution, which aims to embed entrepreneurial approaches in individuals and organisations, has been working with Grwp Llandrillo Menai (GLLM), a Further Education college in North Wales, to develop entrepreneurship curriculum in Thailand’s vocation education sector.

Photos from Enterprise Evolution's latest Thailand trip!

Our team were commissioned by GLLM to work with the British Council in Thailand and OVEC (the Office of Vocational Educational Commission) in Thailand who are responsible for tailoring vocational education and training to the needs of the labour market. They were tasked with undertaking research and making recommendations for strengthening student entrepreneurship.

Photos from Enterprise Evolution's latest Thailand trip!

Enterprise Evolution first visited Thailand back in March, again in June and have recently returned this month. On their first visit they met with key policy makers and influencers including entrepreneurship educators, entrepreneurs, employers and students. Here they were asked for their recommendations on how to strengthen the entrepreneurial activities that were taking place in colleges and help develop a curriculum similar to the quality of those we have in the UK.

When they returned to Thailand in June, Enterprise Evolution presented their findings to OVEC and began to look at how their recommendations could be implemented into the curriculum. And on their latest trip the team worked with 30 enterprise educators introducing the new curriculum and building the teachers capacity to teach in an entrepreneurial way.

Photos from Enterprise Evolution's latest Thailand trip!

Lisa McMullan, our Project Manager and Principal Consultant of Enterprise Evolution told us; ‘It’s been great to work with policy makers, teachers, directors and leaders of the colleges in Thailand to develop and deliver new approaches to entrepreneurship education. There is a real commitment and desire to increase the number of businesses started in Thailand and to support young people in particular to be more entrepreneurial – through self-employment or when working for others.’

The proposals and recommendations made by the GLLM and Enterprise Evolution are now being taken forward by OVEC with a view to introducing the new approach by the end of the year!