UK Enterprise Initiative Comes To The Usa – With NACCE’s Help!

By Geoff Pine
Principal (President)
Greenwich Community College, South East London, England

For over four years the U.K. government has been providing funding for international activity under a scheme sponsored by the Prime Minister – the Prime Minister’s Initiative for International Education – or PMI for short. The overall aims of PMI are to develop educational partnerships and encourage student (and staff) mobility in the context of an increasingly global economy.

In 2008 money was allocated to a project for partnership working in the United States. This initial project involving four US colleges, was led by Greenwich Community College in London and has made progress on developing articulation links between Associate degrees in the USA and the UK’s new vocationally focused Foundation degrees. Because of the success of this project, the PMI Board agreed to set aside additional funding specifically to move forward on partnerships between the U.K. and U.S. colleges with a focus on mutual learning associated with Enterprise.

In spring 2010 a contact seminar was held in Washington, D.C., organised by NACCE with the support of the British Council and the Association of Colleges in the U.K. The aim of this developmental seminar was to prepare the colleges to develop joint bids that would fulfill the PMI funding criteria for this enterprise related fund. A full report on the seminar can be found at www.NACCE.com, under Program & Events, Member Events.

Three bids were successful and these will involve 10 colleges in the U.K. and 17 colleges in the U.S.

The Greenwich bid will enable the creation of cross-Atlantic modules of study on Entrepreneurship that can be appended to vocational curriculum in the U.K. and the U.S. to enhance existing qualifications. The units will use online and virtual study methods and enable colleges to develop future articulation of U.S. Associate degrees and U.K. Foundation degrees. The project activity will be related to the development of a common international curriculum, using technology and thereby encouraging student mobility.

With the Westminster Kingsway bid teams from the colleges will participate in a competition to develop either a new food product or process, based on local farmed ingredients that may be either packaged or served on a plate. They will collaborate via the Internet and social networking sites and will be mentored by specialist tutors and industry professionals in both countries. The competition culminates in a visit to the host country, featuring a week of industry visits and trips, face-to-face collaboration between teams and a final presentation to a ‘Dragons Den’ panel of judges.

The partners in the Anniesland bid will develop an International Passport to Enterprise Skills (IPES). Project activities are focused on the scoping, designing, production and mutual certification of the IPES. The IPES will capture and collate indicative best practices, case-studies and methodologies; contextualize entrepreneurship in a variety of scenarios (incl. Web-based business opportunities), indicate the knowledge and understanding required in entrepreneurship; profile and demonstrate entrepreneurial skills and attributes in action; and indicate and exemplify possible performance criteria and assessment strategies.

For further information, please contact Geoff Pine on geoffp@gcc.ac.uk