Success breeds more success in County Durham

Nov 15 2007 by Francesca Craggs, The Journal

SUCCESS breeds success, so the saying goes, and this is certainly true for one County Durham organisation.

Enterprise Place began life in February 2003 as a DfES-sponsored project, delivering entrepreneurship programmes to 14 to 16-year-olds in Derwentside.

Since then, the organisation itself has been transformed, and the work it does is bringing about a transformation in the mindset of young people and, now, adults.

Enterprise Place has established itself as a leading provider of enterprise education. With a dedicated education centre, it offers programmes to schools, for children from the age of five to 19 years. It now also offers an employee-development programme for businesses across all sectors.

Manager Martin Bell says: “Enterprise education is vital to the continued growth of the region’s economy.

“Supporting schools and parents to nurture enterprising, employable young people is imperative to ensuring our county and our region continues to be the place to do business.”

The focus of the education programmes for schools is on developing transferable wider key skills – ‘team work’, ‘problem solving’ and ‘improving your own learning and performance.’ But creating more employable young people with enhanced job prospects is only one aspect of the work Enterprise Place does.

“The Leitch Report, published early 2007 and looking at the issue of workforce skills levels, makes a forceful point in stating that 70% of the workforce who will be working in 2020 has already left compulsory education,” says Mr Bell.

“We need to continue to develop our skills as adults, in order to ensure we remain competitive.”

Enterprise Place, under the acronym of TOBIES© (Transforming Our Behaviour – Initiating Enterprising Success) offers a range of accredited and bespoke training and development programmes for both schools and for businesses.

For more information, visit the website at www.enterpriseplace.co.uk or contact Martin Bell on (01207) 238-098.