Assessment, Learning & Teaching Reflections |
Thursday 26 January, 2006
The image of an entrepreneur is often of a passionate business type, if the original derivation of entrepreneur from the French ‘enter’ and ‘take’ is used this could refer to qualities developed in students throughout our University. Our Enterprise CETL encourages a broad conceptualisation of enterprise outside the business arena, encouraging students to take part in social change and community projects. At the "Making a Difference" conference, David Wilkinson presented data from the Entrepreneurial Intentions Survey funded by Leeds Met. Having taught on several courses in the Faculty of Health, data for our students was not surprising. A comparatively small proportion of Health based students want to be self-employed, in contrast a sizeable proportion feel they gain appreciation of innovation and have an understanding of how to develop ideas in their subject area while studying here.
Skills required by successful health researchers, teachers and practitioners share considerable overlap with those attributed to entrepreneurs. Vital marketable and transferable skills will be developed in our Faculty through implementation of the UAS with the additional benefit of enhancing links with our local community. Focusing on these skills builds confidence in our students and assists the transfer of creative thinking skills to the workplace.
Dr. Trudy Hartford,
Enterprise Fellow, Faculty of Health.
