I wrote recently about the QAA's foray into higher education professional development with its new resource on enterprise.
When I actually read the draft text, my first reaction was to wonder why QAA was doing this and not the Higher Education Academy (HEA), as this seems to be what the Academy is for. Now I see that HEA was involved in the enterprise project, but hardly as an equal partner. Looks like a bit of a coup to me though the Academy seems not to have noticed.
My second reaction was to groan at the old about / for cliché, so beloved of environmental educators through time (learning about enterprise; learning for ...). Oddly, however, QAA missed out "through" when, surely, there is considerable scope (a no-brainer, I'd say) in enabling students to learn about enterprise through being enterprising. It seems not.
Then I saw the emphasis on graduate (ie, learning) outcomes which are broken down into behaviours, attributes, skills, and more. Many of these seem really rather generic. In the document itself there is a long list of things that students / graduates will need to be able to do if they are to be enterprising. This is what it says in relation to behaviours:
- the ability to seek out, be alert to, and identify opportunities
- the initiative to act on perceived opportunities while considering risk factors
- independent responsibility for managing projects
- the ability to reflect and persevere in challenging environments in pursuit of achieving desired objectives or goals
- use of social skills to build trust, relationships and networks and to communicate ideas and information.
Just right for investment banking and hendge fund types.
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