Interested in enterprise?

Imagine you are not at Imperial. You have never heard of Felix and you are not sitting here reading this article. What a dream. No dull lectures, ridiculously difficult coursework, or seemingly un-passable exams. But imagine that it wasn’t out of choice – imagine you never obtained the opportunity to study here, or to do any studying at all in fact. According to UNESCO, this is the reality for 57 million primary school-aged and 69 million lower secondary school-aged children as of 2011 around the world. There are huge efforts to try and get these figures down to 0, but it is still a long way off. It is difficult to identify the contribution that each barrier has on impeding these children’s rights to education. Nevertheless, this is not a reason to sit back and wait for the statistics to flow in before we make a move.

In line with the Millennium Development Goal that “by 2015, children everywhere will be able to complete a full course in primary schooling”, and even beyond, charities all over the world are working to change the current situation.

One example is the Paraguayan Foundation for Cooperation and Development an organisation which aids schools in Latin America to improve access to education for young people. By showing the San Francisco school in Paraguay that they do not need to solely depend on external sources of income, the Foundation has managed to facilitate it from being previously dependent on decreasing government subsidies and facing high dropout rates. The San Francisco School is now a 100% self-sufficient model that was able to generate $300,000 in five years. How? The solution, when expressed aloud, seems so simple and obvious – successful school businesses!

Thanks to this approach, students at the San Francisco School pay only $10 a month in fees. All school leavers are now working for successful busi- nesses, are self-employed, or enrolled in higher education. This innovative method has been spread around the world by the Foundation’s UK-based sister charity Teach a Man to Fish. “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”

Teach school children how to set up and run their own socially-responsible and environmentally-friendly enterprises and not only will they gain real life, hands-on skills, and the business experience required to succeed after leaving school; but they will also help their schools to generate sustainable income. Education that pays for itself.

Teach a Man to Fish work closely with La Bastilla Technical High School in Nicuragua with the aim for it to become fully self-sufficient within the next two years. Currently only 20% of young people in the Jinotega Department, where the school is located, attend secondary school. By setting up and running a touristic Ecolodge, chicken and egg production, managing dairy, pigs, and a vegetable gar- den, students are able to gain technical skills and business experience in a range of enterprises, as well as know that their efforts are paying for their own education.

It is a great step-forward to empow- ering students, teachers, and whole communities to alleviate themselves from poverty and educational disadvantage.

In order to reach out and encourage even more schools to set up successful businesses Teach A Man To Fish run the annual School Enterprise Challenge. In this global business planning competition, schools are guided during the first stage to think of a business idea and write business and financial plans. During the second stage they set up and run their own enterprise. At both stages schools are able to to win cash prizes which can be invested in their businesses. They range from textiles, to recycling, vegetable gardens, arts and crafts, and furniture- making.

What if a school is already running a successful business? No problem, the School Enterprise Challenge has a section to encourage these schools to keep going.

To support schools to get the most out of the competition, they are of- fered the opportunity to form partner- ships with other schools taking part and apply for a business mentor.

“Mentors play a vital role in encour- aging the pupils through challenges and acting as a sounding board to bounce creative ideas” explains Susannah Morcowitz, a School Enterprise Challenge Programme Fellow at Teach a Man to Fish.

“They can be the pivot for launching the school enterprises into excellence thanks to the confidence students and teachers gain from their encouraging words.”

The talent and drive of Imperial College students does not go unnoticed and is something the organisation believes could make an enormous impact on schools around the world.

“Mentoring is a great opportunity for Imperial students with an interest in enterprise to gain experience working on a global business planning competition,” states Morcowitz.

“Not only is it a chance to gain skills in communication, leadership and mentoring, but it is also a huge benefit for schools around the world who are looking to provide pupils with the soft skills to succeed in future employment.”

At Imperial Hub, a project is being run for students interested in or studying business-related subjects to be an inspirational role model for such schools in a disadvantaged position. This is carried out in the form of two hours a month of mentoring via e-mail at times to suit the mentor in order to provide feedback and support to school businesses.

If you would like to spend a small amount of time developing your pro- fessional skills but make a huge impact, check out more information at www.imperialhub.org/teach-a-man-to-fish.

These are the views of the writer and not the organisations