Commercial Education Trust : Recent Projects

Skip to main content
Contact us Support us
Recent Projects

Recent Projects

We fund projects that support the development of commercial awareness in young people and facilitate their transition from education into employment, self-employment and enterprise.

We fund Research, Practical Projects and Events, Seminars & Lectures that relate to skills development, employability, enterprise and trade.

Here are some of our recent projects:

LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts)

LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts)

Research for Entrepreneurship Training at LAMDA

This project involves research to interrogate the enterprise and professional development tools provided by LAMDA and other organisations in order to develop a programme of entrepreneurship training suitable specifically for LAMDA students and graduates.

Read more...

It has become increasingly evident over the past ten years that the creative industries are not only thriving but evolving; as such, graduates are having to look at their careers in new ways, ways in which they must be proactive and confident to create their own work and opportunities, and develop a portfolio career.

The research will find out what LAMDA students and graduates need in order to set up and sustain careers in the creative industries. It will explore what enterprise and professional development tools are currently provided by LAMDA and other organisations; the potential career paths of its alumni; and, how best to prepare them for the industry that they enter into.

The goal is that all students benefit from this research – actors, directors and technicians – helping them to develop an entrepreneurial and collaborative mindset.

Future First

Future First

Commerce in the Classroom

This pilot project aims to help young people understand the relevance and possibilities of a career in commerce and international trade. Future First will establish a sustainable network of volunteers from various trade organisations and networks who work in this field to provide employer encounters and learning opportunities in Future First member schools.

Read more...

Through this programme, students will gain a greater understanding of what commercial education means and involves, and be exposed to a range of employment and career opportunities, dispelling misconceptions or stereotypes about who can succeed.

Students will be helped to develop their transferable employability skills; to increase their understanding of international trade; to understand the range of employment and career opportunities available within international trade; and, to increase their confidence in their own ability to succeed.

To see how the project is helping young people please click here.

 

Enabling Enterprise (Skills Builder)
  • Website

Enabling Enterprise (Skills Builder)

Leadership for Essential Skills: Transforming Essential Skills Across a Whole School

The Enabling Enterprise (EE) Skills Builder Framework helps schools embed the teaching of eight essential skills - Listening, Presenting, Problem Solving, Creativity, Staying Positive, Aiming High, Leadership and Teamwork - with as much rigour as other parts of the curriculum. The shared language and outcomes for the eight essential skills allows schools to support skill development in young people in a coherent and joined up way.

Read more...

Through grants from CET from 2015-18 Enabling Enterprise learned how to support teachers to transform the essential skills of their students. This critical next project aims to create the equivalent toolkit for school leaders, to drive change at the level of a whole school. As part of this EE will create, publish and promote a School Leaders’ Handbook which is a toolkit to help embed the Essential Skills in the Skills Builder Framework at a whole school level.

Peter Jones Foundation
  • Website

Peter Jones Foundation

Establishment of the PJF Alumni Programme

'Empower Alumni' supports graduates from the Peter Jones Foundation (PJF) courses into employment (including apprenticeships), self-employment or higher education (on an enterprising course).

Read more...

The alumni programme will help PJF students to both galvanise and utilise the meaningful enterprise experiences from their time at school, as well as develop new skills and networks that are essential to driving both their own career and the UK economy forward, whilst at the same time helping improve social mobility through PJF’s focus on less advantaged students.

In addition, the alumni programme will serve a monitoring and evaluation function and long-term impact evaluation. Through the programme PJF will develop the capacity to harvest and analyse longitudinal data on the outcomes of their programme.

Action Through Enterprise (ATE)

Action Through Enterprise (ATE)

BizATE: Training and Mentoring for Economic Growth – a 2 Year Plan

This project supports ATE’s work to develop a new training and mentoring plan, mentoring workbook and mentoring handbook for entrepreneurs in Lawra, Ghana. The project runs from January 2020 to August 2022.

Read more...

The project will address previous lessons learnt from 3 years of CET-funded trainings to increase efficiency, drive forward recommendations made by beneficiaries and staff, and (vitally) fully hand over program delivery to Ghana Staff. This improvement in structure and delivery will increase the sustainability of ATE’s BizATE Programme, as well as the sustainability of the entrepreneurs supported by this programme.

The Prince’s Trust
  • Website

The Prince’s Trust

The Prince's Trust Enterprise Game

The Prince's Trust digital business simulation Enterprise Game is designed to combat commercial illiteracy by providing young people with the business knowledge and enterprise skills such as finance, production, critical thinking, communication, problem-solving and resilience through an interactive digital game.

Read more...

The Enterprise Game is a key component of the Prince’s Trust’s Enterprise Challenge and is designed to be a short, sharp, fun and engaging intervention that will inspire and kick-start the development of enterprise skills, through the application of business knowledge, in a safe and engaging simulation. Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds aged 11-18 are the target audience for the Challenge

The Enterprise Game is scheduled to launch in early 2020.

Future Frontiers

Future Frontiers

External Evaluation of Future Frontiers Career Coaching Programme

Only an estimated 10% of schools provide adequate careers advice to their students, most of it online, leaving few opportunities for face-to-face guidance that is highly recommended for supporting young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Read more...

Future Frontiers works primarily in London but also in areas of high deprivation on the South Coast of England, delivering one-to-one careers coaching alongside a range of meaningful employer interactions that are aligned to the aspirations of young people. It currently works in 15 schools, supporting over 1,300 pupils, with over 470 university students and business professionals as career coaches.

CET grant support is for an external evaluation of the Future Frontiers coaching programme in two parts, to be undertaken by two research universities. The evaluation will test the programme’s effectiveness as well as track pupil destinations.

Nottingham University Business School (NUBS)

Nottingham University Business School (NUBS)

Scaling Business Education for Undergraduate Engineers

It is widely accepted that engineering skills are greatly augmented by commercial and business skills, however the biggest pool of engineering education, Higher Education Institution (HEI) undergraduate degrees, lacks business content. This project supports David Falzani (Honorary Professor at NUBS) and his exploration, discovery and prototyping of a scalable route to introduce commercial and business education to undergraduate engineers, using business prize competitions and seminars.

Read more...

To date, competitions and seminars have been achieved at Nottingham University, City University London, University of Bristol and Kingston University. Additional funding from the Gatsby Charitable Foundation has led to an increase in the speed and scaling of prize competitions which will continue into 2019 and beyond.

Action Through Enterprise (ATE)

Action Through Enterprise (ATE)

BizATE – Business Development and Training, Lawra District, Ghana.

BizATE is a training programme which supports entrepreneurs and small business owners in a rural district of Ghana which endures high levels of poverty and where the majority of the population rely on subsistence farming to survive.

Read more...

The project provides small business owners (SBOs) with the necessary skills to kick start and grow a thriving business as a way of addressing the need for sustainable income generation in this region. With increased profits and savings, SBOs can support both themselves and their dependents. ATE’s approach ensures high retention and success rates, with SBOs on average trebling their monthly profit and securing savings for the future. Funding for this programme also includes the training of local trainers and consultants to deliver the programme. ATE is the only NGO providing business training in this part of Ghana.

Young Enterprise

Young Enterprise

Improving the Skills and Commercial Education of Young People in Wales

Young Enterprise empowers young people to develop their personal and business skills: this project specifically supports their work in Wales so that enterprise education is prioritised and embedded in Welsh schools.

Read more...

The primary aim is to help approximately 3,000 learners aged 5-24 in educational centres across the country to develop essential employability skills such as confidence, communication, organisation, initiative, resilience, teamwork, problem solving and financial capability; and, to develop core behaviours such as self-esteem, aspiration, career intention and work readiness.

In 2018-19 the project will also train 70 teachers in enterprise and employability education and 20 teachers in financial and enterprise education. It will also involve the recruitment of volunteers from the world of business and commerce

London Chamber of Commerce and Industry

London Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Young Chamber

CET supported LCCI’s Young Chamber pilot project to improve business engagement in schools, especially (although not exclusively) among SMEs. The project was designed to test out different types of business-school-student interventions in order to identify the best ways to help students and teachers better understand the world of work, and to develop employability skills.

Read more...

The project focused on the Croydon area in its initial phase. Ten schools and 45+ businesses were involved with 3,000+ students and pupils benefitting from in a series of events and activities. The project led to the production of a model of business engagement in schools which is being extended in Croydon and delivered more widely across London.”

Enabling Enterprise

Enabling Enterprise

Developing Enhanced Training to Teachers to Support Enterprise and Employability Skills

The objective of this project was to improve the teaching of eight key enterprise skills deemed essential to the development of young people; to produce a set of tools to teach them; to make these available at primary and secondary school level; and to evaluate the effectiveness of the project. Enabling Enterprise worked closely with teachers to create short skills videos, and content which is engaging and clear.

Read more...

Ultimately, this project was a contributor to the development of the organisation’s Skills Builder Framework (featured under ‘Useful Resources’) and Skills Builder Partnership which is a national coalition of educators, employers and others committed to establishing a common language for essential skills; and, an understanding of the outcomes for your people in developing these skills to a high level of competence.”

Useful Resources

Useful Resources

Below are links to a few resources we find useful and relevant to commercial education.  These relate to practical guides, research findings, events and…... Read more

Our Funding Priorities

Our Funding Priorities

We regard commercial education as embracing four main areas of activity: SKILLS DEVELOPMENT: education in the essential skills that are needed for employment as…... Read more

General Exclusions

General Exclusions

We will not normally: support commercial organisations, charities not registered in the UK, or failing organisations or causes fund major capital projects (e.g. the…... Read more

Partners

Latest Tweets

@theCETorg