Outcomes map: Enterprise
education and employability
January 2015
Version 1
Prepared by:
Marianna Lemus
YE Research & Evaluation Manager
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Mapping outcomes for enterprise education
This document describes Young Enterprise’s impact measurement approach and
defines the outcomes currently being measured by the organisation.
This document is intended to provide a more detailed explanation of our monitoring
and evaluation rationale in measuring the effect of enterprise education on young
people’s employability and entrepreneurial competencies. This document is not
intended to be definitive as the iterative nature of impact measurement implies ongoing development and adjustment to the series of outcomes and indicators
measured.
If you have any feedback or suggestions, please get in touch by emailing
[email protected].
Founded in 1962, Young Enterprise is the UK’s leading enterprise education charity.
For over 50 years we have been working with young people across the UK to enable
them to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need for the world of work.
Our vision
We want every young person in the UK to leave education with the knowledge, skills
and attitudes to succeed in work and in life.
Our mission
To inspire and equip all young people for life through enterprise
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Measurement overview
Enterprise education
Enterprise education is the application of creative ideas to practical situations. It
aims to raise awareness of the mind-set and skills required to respond to
opportunities, needs and challenges such as problem solving, teamwork,
communication, creativity and resilience. It can be applied across the curriculum,
extending beyond business to a wide range of practical and social skills.
Employability
The ability of an individual to gain and sustain work. Various factors are involved in
determining an individual’s employability levels. Whilst these relate to an extent to
social and personal circumstances, along with the particular economic context, the
focus of this document is the set of skills and aptitudes that an individual can gain
and / or improved as part of their education journey. As such, the concept of
employability is herewith defined by three elements:
1. The ability to get a job
2. The ability to retain employment
3. The ability to make career decisions leading to quality of work (obtain new
employment when desired and job satisfaction)
Employability skills
Employability skills can be defined as the skills that almost everyone needs to do
almost any job.1 These include general and functional skills (numeracy, literacy, IT
skills), interpersonal skills (communication, teamwork) as well as self-confidence and
resilience.
For the purpose of this outcomes map review, employability skills are defined as the
skills and capabilities acquired and / or improved on as a result of participating in
Young Enterprise programmes and Enterprise Education learning. These do not
include academic qualifications or personal wellbeing. The Young Enterprise
evaluation framework tests the following eight employability competencies and
corresponding skills (figure 1).
1
NPC (2013) Outcomes Map: Employment and Training
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Figure 1: Young Enterprise employability competencies framework
Entrepreneurial
The ability of an individual to take responsibility in the organisation, operation and
taking-on of risks of new projects and / or business ventures. There are various factors,
both internal and context specific, that affect an individual’s desire to be selfemployed but also determine the readiness to launch into new projects.
Entrepreneurial skills
Young Enterprise believes that the causality link runs from an enhanced
employability potential to entrepreneurial capabilities. As such, our monitoring and
evaluation efforts during the course of programme delivery focuses on measuring
competency type progression as part of the employability competencies tested
(see figure 1). Furthermore, the ability of Young Enterprise programmes to have a
profound effect is contingent on a sustained and / or repeated intervention. This
takes the shape of the Company Programme (nine months long) or the Learner
Development Journey (see section below of the same name).
Specific testing of Young Enterprise’s impact on entrepreneurial spirits is instead
relegated to the alumni strategy, which is outside the scope of this document.
Indeed, it takes time and maturity – both emotional but also in terms of ideas
formulation – to set up a business and effectively launch into the business world. As
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such, Young Enterprise relies on longitudinal long-term studies to investigate the
extent to which its programmes have resulted in self-employment. The first systematic
review will take place in 2015-16 with destination analyses of the 2013-14 cohort of
Company Programme participants.
Context
The skills gap
The annual Education and Skills survey carried out by the Confederation of British
Industry [CBI] shows year on year how employers rate school and college leavers’
attitudes and aptitudes as their top priority. 2 Furthermore, while employers value
academic results and chosen topics of study, they have raised concerns with a
declining level of work readiness, which helps businesses to thrive. The 2014 survey
shows that what employers value the most is young people’s attitudes to work (85%),
followed by aptitudes to work (63%). Approximately only a third mention academic
results (30%) as the most important factors. The 2014 CBI and Pearson Education and
Skills Survey is accessible HERE.
This apprehensive outlook on the next wave of economically active people is further
corroborated by the Prince’s Trust who in its 2014 Skills Crunch Report indicate that
73% of business leaders believe a skills crisis will hit the UK within the next three years.
Another 32% said they face skills shortages for entry-level positions. The 2014 Prince’s
Trust Report is accessible HERE.
Addressing the structural problem
Fixing the UK’s skills mismatch in young recruits requires sustained structural reforms
addressing both the inefficient linkages between education and the world of work.
The aims of such reforms must be the long term benefits to the wellbeing of young
people – be making an effective transition between education and the world of
work – but also the UK economy. Undeniably, the globalisation phenomenon
requires a productive and responsive work force able to take on and / or adapt to
the jobs of tomorrow, thereby contributing to the maintenance of the UK’s
competitive edge and strengthening the economy.
Young Enterprise believes that part of the solution is enterprise education which
through its practical learning-by-doing approach, enables young people to apply
theoretical learning to real-life problems whilst developing key skills and behaviours.
2
The survey pooled responses from 291 UK employers, collectively employing over 1.4 million people. Participant
organisations are drawn form all sectors of the economy and are of all sizes.
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Young Enterprise’s intervention
Young Enterprise delivers a number of different programmes revolving around the
enterprise education concept and varying in depth and length. These programmes
cover the whole of the education cycle, from primary through to higher and further
education. All interventions are designed with the objective of having an impact on
awareness and/or ability of young people’s own capabilities and employability
potential. See the Learner Development Journey section below for more details on
Young Enterprise’s programmes.
Key Outcomes
Young Enterprise has four main priority outcomes, targeted through our series of
enterprise education programmes all ages from 4 upwards:
1. Raising self-awareness in young people around the skills and attitudes
required for employment
2. Developing skilled and adaptable young people through practical
experience and learning intervention-specific skills
3. Tackling barriers to employment by raising the quality of skills and capacity of
young people to effectively present these to employers through CVs and
cover letter but also demonstrate them with examples when face-to-face.
4. Enhance young people’s entrepreneurial potential by raising young people’s
confidence levels and helping them to believe in their own potential
Each of these outcomes has a detailed framework of target outputs and outcomes
dependent on:
1. The programme type
a. Day programme
b. 4 weeks programme i.e. The Tenner and Fiver Challenge
c. 1 academic year long programme i.e. Company Programme
2. Learning activities
a. World of work
b. Life mapping
c. Entrepreneurial
3. Age
a. Age determines the numbers and degree of complexity in questions
asked
Theory of change
Core to our monitoring and evaluation processes is the belief that enterprise
education is a facilitator of practical learning by doing, resulting in the development
of young people’s key employability competencies. Figure 2 shows the causality links
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underpinning the delivery of Young Enterprise programmes and intended short,
medium and long term outcomes.
Figure 2: Theory of change
Current approach to measurement
Measures of individual employability
Over the course of the academic year 2013-14, Young Enterprise has developed
and piloted a series of tailored evaluation systems of measurement aimed at impact
measurement specifically. The tool that has proven most effective is that of a self7|9
assessment questionnaire – pre & post intervention – asking young people to rate
their perceived capabilities in carrying out a series of tasks directly linked to the
programme content and learning outcomes. This tool enables Young Enterprise to
track perceptions of the distance travelled by the individual over a series of
indicators covering the eight employability competencies (figure 1).
Young Enterprise recognises that there are many interacting factors that influence
young people’s employability potential, thereby making it difficult to map a linear
path of causal factors and to measure progress towards employment, education
and/or training. As such, in addition to the young people self-assessment
questionnaire, we are also asking centre leads and volunteers to provide feedback
on their perceived progression of young people following the programme
intervention (data triangulation).
Measures of destinations
Part of Young Enterprise’s alumni strategy includes tracking participants into their
employment, education and / or training choices. Young Enterprise’s alumni
strategy is currently being defined with a number of data capture tools and
methods being investigated.
Employment statistics
A number of key official statistics – as measured by the Office for National Statistics
(ONS) – are regularly consulted by Young Enterprise in order to add context to
programmes launched, improvement and / or delivery.3 These statistics, analysed at
the regional level also enable Young Enterprise to target interventions, for example,
to areas of multiple deprivation.
The Learner Development Journey
As a result of data collections and analyses, Young Enterprise noticed the benefits of
repeated exposure to enterprise education on young people’s employability
competencies and self-awareness. This led to the creation of the Learner
Development Journey.
The journey takes young people from stage 1 – raising awareness of employability
competencies, through to stage 4 where they model key competencies through
real-life experience. Figure 3 outlines where each of our programmes typically sit on
the Learner Development Journey.
A comprehensive document covering terminology, methodology and frequency of the
ONS Labour Market data is available online:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171766_294390.pdf
3
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Figure 3: The Learner Development Journey (stages)
As demonstrated above, the 9 months long Company Programme is the concluding
stage to young people’s exposure to enterprise education.
Young Enterprise is currently collecting data aimed at evaluating the impact of
Journey type interventions where stage 4 will occur in Q3 2015. Consequently, data
will be analysed and published in Q4 2015.
If you have any feedback or suggestions, please get in touch by emailing
[email protected].
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