What's in it for Business?

Introduction

Over the fourteen years from 1993 to 2007 more than 100,000 Australian high school students have participated in ABW programs. With a ratio of one business mentor for every ten students that means some 10,000 business people have made a contribution to the education of Australia’s youth. While this effort on behalf of the business community has been a wonderful contribution of knowledge and experience, the benefit has not been one-way. At ABW we have recorded constant feedback from business mentors stating that they have received a positive benefit from the experience.

Davies Report – Enterprise Britain

This positive benefit for business working with schools is supported by research in Australia and overseas. The Davies Report in the UK, “Enterprise Britain: A modern approach to meeting the enterprise challenge” was commissioned in June 2001 by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Secretary of State for Education and Skills and Secretary for Trade and Industry. Howard Davies, Chairman of the Financial Services Authority was asked to conduct a review of enterprise and the economy in schools and further education, covering the age range of 5-19. Its terms of reference were to consider how to promote better understanding of business, the economy and enterprise throughout the school and further education systems.

The Davies Report found that there was a positive benefit for business to work with schools. Some of the findings were, that businesses that encouraged their staff to develop a working relationship with schools, enjoyed lower staff absenteeism and lower staff turnover. Many organisations said that their staff felt that they had higher self esteem because they were working for an organisation which made a genuine contribution to the community. Experience gained by staff while working with schools was seen as worthwhile staff development. Participating staff members expressed the belief that they were acquiring valuable management and leadership skills. Working with schools was seen as an opportunity for the organisation to be seen as a good employer and thereby attracting quality students to seek work experience and employment. Some organisations found that by working with their local schools they were able to develop products and services that more closely met community requirements.

LEEP – Leading Enterprise Education Partnerships

In Australia, ABW has received a significant grant from the Department of Education, Science and Training to examine how businesses and schools can create sustainable partnerships to develop an enterprising culture within schools and local communities.

‘I want to make a real difference within the community’, says Ray Haley, Manager of Bendigo Bank in Calwell, ACT ‘and working in partnership with our local schools is a great way to do that.’ 

Leaders from local businesses have teamed up with principals and teachers from schools to participate in ABW’s Leading Enterprise Education Partnership (LEEP) project. LEEP aims to create sustainable partnerships between businesses and education to develop an enterprising culture within schools and local communities. LEEP is one of 47 projects funded nationally by the Department for Education, Science and Training under its Enterprise Learning for the 21st Century initiative.

The nine pilot partnerships are now well established after getting to know each other through work shadowing, meetings and setting goals together. All partnerships are currently at the stage of implementing agreed projects for teachers or students. Projects include a focus on the enterprise or entrepreneurial skills needed to be a success in any field, including running your own business. The partnerships have certainly been enterprising in themselves using creative and innovative ideas within their own projects.

If you would like to know more about LEEP please contact:

colette.mckiernan@abw.org.au

How can business get involved?

By encouraging staff to act as:

Mentors

Mentors are people on loan from business and education who play a key role in modeling the philosophy of ABW. Mentors enable young people to learn about business through assisting them to run their own simulated company.

Speakers

Speakers are invited to speak at ABW programs within their area of specialisation. The ABW program needs speakers on every aspect of business including; finance, marketing, operations, motivation, presentation, advertising to name a few.

Judges

As a judge at an ABW program your particular specialties, your industry, academic and worldly knowledge is valued by students. In critiquing their efforts you can encourage them to do better. Be constructive and if you have to correct errors suggest better alternatives so that students will learn from the criticism.

Sponsorship

As a not-for-profit organisation, ABW depends on the generosity and goodwill of many businesses and on the volunteers who devote their time and energy to help program participants. We wish to forge solid partnerships with companies who share in this vision and who would like to take a proactive role in educating and inspiring our future business leaders.

ABW Programs for Corporations

Businesses have discovered that their staff can develop valuable business acumen by working in teams to run a simulated business. ABW has been associated with A.S.K Learning for the past four years through A.S.K delivering the ABW experience to corporate leaders such as IBM, Dell, and Fuji Xerox in Australia and across the globe. Based on the ABW manufacturing simulation the A.S.K programs marketed as Business Acumen are modified to suit corporate requirements and are offered by ASK in conjunction with its extensive range of eLearning modules and other instructor led corporate training programs. The proposed alliance will see A.S.K marketing ABW programs to the corporate market under an exclusive licencing agreement, and to have A.S.K develop enhanced eLearning materials to support the simulations which can then be made available to schools. To learn more about A.S.K and to see some of their outstanding eLearning materials go to www.asklearning.com  or to find out more about Business Acumen contact Nick Dorney at nick.dorney@asklearning.com