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Guidance supporting Europe’s aspiring entrepreneurs
Policy and practice to harness future potential

of others in their community. It engages thousands of young people from schools
of general education, VET and youth services in activity which is youth-led, team-
based and action-focused. This is not directly linked to business formation either
but helps students to identify and build solutions to problems people face in
everyday life. This is the principle on which much of business activity is based;
responding to customer needs and wishes.
A similar example can be found in the UK. Cramlington Learning Village is a
vocational college in the northeast of England which has run a week-long
initiative based on the principles of a socially driven enterprise. The college was
keen to help its students form better relationships and play an active part in
society, and consequently decided to launch a personal challenge week, when all
year nine pupils were given personal challenges designed to include enterprise
and to benefit the local community in some way. The week of activities designed
to encourage learners to make a positive contribution has had much broader
benefits (see Example 6).

Example 6. Cramlington Learning Village, the UK

Cramlington Learning Village is a specialist science and vocational college in Northumberland with 2
300 students. The college has been recognised as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted (an agency in charge of
regulation and inspections) three times in succession.
The college decided to launch a Personal challenge week, when all year nine pupils were given
personal challenges designed to include enterprise and to benefit the local community in some way.
Pupils were asked to select something in which they were not fully competent but would like to improve:
it had to be a real challenge for them. The week was fully inclusive, with all activities funded by the
school. Possible activities included:

• creating an allotment as a long-term business venture to supply the school with flowers or
vegetables;
• researching and producing a fitness video with advice on exercise and nutrition;
• developing a recycling scheme for the school in conjunction with the local council and producing a
recycling promotional stand for use in the community;
• producing a newspaper of the week’s activities, plus audio news for the radio station and a TV
news programme to be shown on big screens in the school;
• researching and producing a local history film and marketing a DVD of it.
The week culminated in an exhibition day open to the public, where the pupils demonstrated their
completed challenges and explained what they were able to do now that they could not do at the start
of the week.
The school was delighted to find that the benefits extended beyond helping pupils form
relationships and participate in society. The pupils enjoyed the week and engaged well with the
activities, developing a range of knowledge, skills and understanding relevant to entrepreneurial activity
and working life.

Some VET schools have built multidisciplinary programmes as a way of
fostering innovation, teamwork and innovation; the integration of students from
different disciplines offers realism and technical knowledge from the other
disciplines. In Belgium, joint projects were set up between different subjects with

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