This document summarizes interviews conducted with 30 academic staff members at Sheffield Hallam University regarding enterprise education and its integration into the curriculum. Key findings included that staff felt there needed to be clearer definitions of enterprise education provided by the university. Staff also noted challenges embedding enterprise due to constraints on curriculum design and initiatives being mandated without support. However, staff recognized the importance of developing enterprising skills in students to improve employability, though acknowledged this may look different across subjects. The researchers concluded staff would benefit from more support and examples of good practice to help adapt their teaching to be more enterprising.

1. Embedding Enterprise in the
Curriculum - the Staff
Perspective
Kirsty Grant and Katie Hook, Student
Researchers
Sheila Quairney, Enterprise Centre

2. What is Enterprise in the Curriculum?
• An approach to learning, not a subject in itself
• The application of creative ideas and innovation to practical situations
• A generic concept that can be applied across all areas of education
• Combines creativity, ideas development and problem solving with
expression, communication and practical action
• Does not necessarily refer to creating a project or business venture
• Produces graduates with the mindset and skills to come up with original
ideas in response to identified needs and shortfalls, and the ability to act
on them
• Includes taking the initiative, intuitive decision making, making things
happen, networking, identifying opportunities, creative problem solving,
strategic thinking, and personal effectiveness
• Enterprise education extends beyond knowledge acquisition to a wide
range of emotional, intellectual, social, and practical skills

3. Why do Enterprising Skills Matter?
• 'The labour market requires graduates with enhanced skills who can think on their
feet and be innovative in a global economic environment' (The Quality Assurance
Agency for Higher Education (QAA), April 2012)
• 'Universities should reflect on the strategies they use to ensure that students have
the opportunity to develop enterprise skills both through the formal curriculum
and through optional study or practice, and reflect on the integration of enterprise
education in the professional development programmes for academic staff'
(Review of Business–University Collaboration :Professor Sir Tim Wilson DL)
• 'We must not lose sight of the talent universities are really put on earth to deliver.
They must provide us with people with the ability to continually learn, to think
critically and theoretically, to be reflective and reflexive, to innovate and break
the status quo, and to navigate in the unstable waters of the global economy.' Dr
David Docherty, chief executive of the Council for Industry and Higher Education

4. Research Aims
1) To ascertain what involvement staff, at Sheffield
Hallam University, perceive they should have in
sharing notions of enterprise with their students
2) To explore the perspectives of academic staff on
how enterprise might be developed in the
curriculum to support employability

5. Methodology
• Convenience sample of lecturers, across faculties
• Participation was voluntary and responses anonymised
• Exploratory qualitative approach
• 30 semi-structured interviews conducted lasting between
20-30 minutes
• Thematic analysis of data

6. Our Experience

7. Results
• Participants N = 30
• All active permanent teaching staff (years teaching
M = 9.8, SD=8.8)
• 40% (n=12) in faculty of SBS, similar responses
between D&S, ACES and H&WB
• 46.7% (n=14) of staff previous role had been in
the private sector with the rest split between
academic and public sector roles

8. Preliminary Findings
1) Defining enterprise education
2) Embedding enterprise
3) Influence of staff background
4) Importance of students' real-life experience
5) One size doesn’t fit all
6) Initiative Overload

9. Defining Enterprise Education?
"I think it would be good to
know what the university meant
by enterprise in reality rather
than the definition…still giving
academics the freedom to make
it more relevant to their subject"
“It’s employability we talk
about and that’s what the
university talks about . . .
They don’t talk about
enterprise.”

10. Embedding Enterprise
"I think the barrier could
be just that something
else has to go so that the “It should be embedded
curriculum has been in the curriculum but its
devised where it is quite got to be the best fit
constrained to the depending on what the
objectives of that degree discipline is and
particular course and everything has to be
there isn't a way where it created to that"
can actually fit in"

11. Influence of Staff Background
"What credibility do you
have when you pretend
to prepare people to
become professionals "We might understand
out there in the the theory but do we
marketplace when you actually understand the
yourself have no real conditions for
link with the enterprise?"
environment? "

12. Importance of Students' Real-Life
Experience
“Standing up and
doing a talk about
"The problem is trying to what it means to be
teach them (students) enterprising is
skills that they don’t probably going to send
understand they need, someone to sleep.
because they have had Unless they get a
no exposure to…the real chance to experience
world" that, to practice that in
some way . . .”

13. One Size Doesn’t Fit All
For the students, "one “You can’t give them
size doesn’t fit all its the drive and the
about giving people tenacity and the
the chance to think determination . . . You
about this as an option hope to create the
for them" - conditions in which
commenting on they find that in
embedding enterprise themselves”
into the curriculum

14. Initiative Overload
"There's a three
line whip to attend
an employability "The dictate came
conference" down…this was quite a
threatening way of dealing
with introducing
something…it was the
“There seems to be thunderbolt like 'thou shalt
do this' rather than saying
so many initiatives look what you have got?
that one isn’t maybe That’s excellent, how can
fully clear in terms of we grow this"
what’s on offer.”

15. Challenges during the Project
• Recruitment of participants
• Time Scale
• Finding mutually convenient dates to meet
• Capitalising on the vast range of ideas
emerging

16. Learning and Recommendations
• Staff could see the value of teaching
enterprising skills to increase students’
employability but clarification over
terminology is needed
• Staff would benefit from support from the
university to develop a clearer picture of how
they can adapt their subject expertise to be
delivered in a more enterprising way

17. Learning and Recommendations
• Staff felt frustrated at the volume and delivery
of new initiatives. Examples of good practice
should be celebrated and shared amongst
staff and across faculties to facilitate shared
learning.

18. So what now?
• Continue the thematic analysis
• Disseminate a short report
• Publication for a peer reviewed journal
• Findings to be included as part of the background
to forthcoming enterprise centre review

19. We happily invite any questions
Thank You for Listening