2024/2025 academic year brings clear challenges for the enterprise educator.

Working within a difficult academic environment, that has seen voluntary redundancies, attacks on the value and worth of specific courses and HE in general, the new term brings some inevitable challenges.
Reflecting on last year, and looking ahead to a new Westminster government with a different approach to Europe allows EEUK to create a call to action for all enterprise educators.  This call is to “future proof” your work by seizing the opportunities for you and your students (which potentially could include the movement of young people to work and study in Europe) and capturing and evidencing the impact of your work.

As “third space” professionals Enterprise Educators see the transformation of students, the connection and the community and are often the reason why students are on campus. EEUK calls upon you to shout about – prove your worth, and showcase your achievements through those of your students – and in her keynote to IEEC Belfast, Alison makes the case to:

Showcase your work: Post-lockdown sector research (including the work of The Sutton Trust and the government itself, which shows the proportion of home students disclosing mental health condition to their university at over 5%) has shown our young people to be more anxious, less connected, and less able to embrace the university experience in a political climate where its value was questioned.

However, last year also provided notes of celebration, such as UCAS (2024) reporting a record number of disadvantaged Scottish students getting their place in university and key reports suggest that graduates are positive about the experience. Our challenge is now to support all the students coming through to have this.  Working in the “third space” enterprise educators have the opportunity to engage with our students and be the reason they come on campus.

 Ensure AI doesn’t add to the digital divide: find opportunities to be inclusive The current discussion in HE suggests that AI can be embraced; though it is clear that in future proofing our students, we need prepare them for the arrival of Sora and the next generation of AI, not by ignoring or second-guessing it, but by ensuring they engage and are supported to understand its potential.  Whether you can share AI innovation tools to compare the speed of the experience with the passion of the group work thinking  process, or need to follow QAA and the advice of others speaking about “doing good”, it is key that you are not furthering the digital division.

The opportunity to really offer Inclusive entrepreneurship asks that you to understand who you are working with and explore whether you are providing the support to their needs and how you can best help those who you have yet to engage with.

Inclusivity also means understanding the international. With a significant change from Westminster, this will mean ensuring your offer is right for all.

Build Skills – develop competences – use EntreComp to develop your people Futureproofing our nations by developing the skills of a workforce has been a strong political message recently as we see HEFCW rebrand from CTER to MEDR (skills in Welsh) and Skills England is created by the new Starmer government. This upskilling includes us as enterprise educators! so connect with EEUK to access support and use EntreComp to help track, and evidence, the development of your students, starts and even your own team.

Working as part of knowledge exchange, to build your KEF “perspective” explore what this might mean for local business and keep your eye out for opportunities!

Futureproof by showcasing your #3E work, ensuring your students are tax-ready online and you are in a position to maximise  institutional opportunities through KE, Skills Development, whether through micro-credentials which offer particular benefits, or through your wider work in the community (KE).

So if you are feeling that education is in turmoil, whether you are working in curriculum or as a practioner, then Track, Evidence, Action and Report – take the time to “show off” your students and your impact)! Embrace the metrics as they show that are doing a good job – hold yourselves to account and deliver for your students – be the reason they come on campus and the reason they leave ready for the challenges ahead!