Vision and Dreams

‘Inspirational’ – a much touted word these days.  We hear about people who have done remarkable things in the face of adversity, from unbelievable physical achievements to astonishing feats of endurance.  Perhaps we personally don’t particularly want to climb a mountain or trek through the Sahara.  However we do want to achieve ‘stuff’.

What these amazingly inspirational people have in common behind all these physical achievements, is a particular mental attitude and self-belief, a mind-set where they are able to believe in not just the possibility, but the actuality of they themselves doing and achieving certain things.

Most of us go through life with a reasonable self-knowledge and some idea of what we believe we are capable of.  But we tend to avoid what we think we won’t ‘do well’ at because of our perception of our life situation and abilities.  So how do we move towards the approach adopted by those inspirational speakers?

As kids we do a lot of big stuff without thinking – learning to walk, to speak a language, to try new experiences, climb trees, explore places, take risks, be curious and ingenious.  And so our world grows, but as we get older we become less adventurous, more circumspect, we build defences and boundaries.  Basically we become more realistic.  This is good, and sensible.  But it should not stop us from venturing into new areas and it should not take away that drive to move forward that is innate in us all as children.

A sense of realism is necessary to achieve what we really want.  But we also need to have vision and passion, dreams and aspirations, to know we can turn our dreams into reality.
“To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan but believe”.  Anatole France

If we accept this dreaming into our lives we are then expecting the positive and if we expect the positive, energy flows and things happen, our self-belief grows and we become achievers.

Britain needs your help to grow again

A YouGov online poll of business leaders found that 70% of them attribute a lack of entrepreneurial experience amongst educators as a major reason for youngsters not making their business ideas a reality. (YouGovStone Ltd)

As the economy starts to pull itself out of recession, the Government is placing great emphasis on our young people’s energy and ideas to help to grow the economy, create new jobs and take us towards a prosperous future. Yet without training, how can they stand a chance. The government and your country need your help.

Building confidence to start their own successful business

More than 50% of young people say they would like to start up their own business but less than 1% actually do. Statistics show that good enterprise education would double that percentage.

Just starting a business will not be enough. A large percentage of new businesses fail. So we also need to teach our young people how to turn their business ideas into vibrant, profitable, successful businesses.

Enterprise Students are taught how to build successful businesses:

They learn how to:

·  Work out what they really want to do

·  Present themselves well

·  Lead effectively

·  Manage challenge

·  Handle finances

·  Turn their idea into a viable business

Enterprise Training stops young people from falling into long term employment.

The CMI believes teaching students business skills is the way forward. As part of its Manifesto for a Better Britain, the CMI states:

“We support efforts to prevent a generation of young people from falling into long term unemployment.....Equipping school and university leavers with skills that employers need will be vital for future economic growth." (1)

The DCSF paper “Guidance for Commissioning and Funding Education Business Partnership Services in 2010- 11" (2) states that Work Related Learning (WRL) opportunities

“can include multiple, shorter duration work experience placements and work tasters with different employers, projects linked to a relevant part of the school curriculum based on real issues faced by employers, workplace visits, talks by employers explaining the world of work, business mentoring programmes, competitions and enterprise education activities.” The choice is yours.

The fact is, enterprise education is so important. With it students who cannot see employment opportunities are setting up successful businesses and those who want to work for someone else, are winning employment far more easily.

The YES 12 Steps to Success programme delivers exactly what the Government, CMI and WRL are calling for. What is more, it will give your young people the best opportunity to be in the exactly the right place for the future! Without it, they just do not have the training to deliver the growth our country needs.

(1) Petra Wilson, Director of Policy and Research, CMI

(2) www.teachnet.gov.uk/publications Search ref:DCSF - 01144-2009

Funding for Enterprise Education is no longer a barrier

With the government calling for young people to be trained in Enterprise Education- in order to drive economic growth, there is need for urgent action! Yet with already overburdened budgets, where can you get the funding?

Funding Help is at hand!
Until March 2011 £15 million has been made available for Enterprise Education in Primary Schools and Further Education colleges. This money is for the:
“delivery of enterprise education through Enterprise Learning Partnerships, the London 2012 Education Programme and Young Chamber UK.”  (1)

This is on top of the existing £55 million, which is already allocated to secondary schools.

 In the Higher Education sector:
“there will be a £2 million expansion of the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship’s (NCGE) “Flying Start” programmes to support current students and recent graduates to set up their own businesses. In 2010/11, these programmes will be made available in all English universities.” (1)

So funding is not a barrier to schools and colleges providing valuable enterprise projects and programmes. The government is providing funding for enterprise- for these educational organisations to use as they think best.

The Future is Bright
What is more, it looks like this funding is set to continue. The DCSF paper “Guidance for Commissioning and Funding Education Business Partnership Services in 2010-11” states: 
“The National Council for Education Excellence recommended that the Government and local authorities should ensure that there is universal access to high quality education business brokerage in every area.”(2)

Why choose the Yes 12 Step Programme?
There are many providers of Enterprise training out there. The Yes 12 Step programme is very different. It starts with the students- helping them to work out what they really want to do, building their confidence and then helping them to make their dream a reality. What a wonderful gift to give our students.

What is more, by offering the YES programme students cannot lose - because they will be learning  the skills and mindsets they require to set up their own business or t get a good job.

1.www.bis.gov.uk/assets/.../budget2010-supporting-young-entrepreneurs.doc
2.www.teachernet.gov.uk/publications, Search Ref:DCSF-01144-2009

THE DYMAXION MAP

Yes to the 12 Steps to Success

Wow, what a great week at Wiltshire Council with the young group from the Future Jobs Fund. Well, I was only there for half the week but it was energising to see the 12 Steps to Success being so well assimilated.

And what a shame that the Future Jobs Fund is not open to new applications any longer. Just as well we have the 12 Steps to Success ready to take into schools and colleges to help people in that most important of decisions - what to do with their lives. There is so much entrepreneurial potential in our young people and we only need to allow them the opportunity to test it out, explore their possibilities and passions and build independence for them to start out on their own, either in business or in their future career.

Well done and all the best to Alexis, Nathan, James, David, Chris, Sara, Ryan and Fatna. It was a privilege to work with you all!

YES YES YES

YES – A brilliant name for a unique enterprise project which is being offered to schools to create successful learners through developing entrepreneurial capability in children and young people. The programme is called The 12 Steps to Success and is an easy to follow series of steps with a fun and interactive learning style encompassing different entrepreneurial and personal development subjects. It incorporates goal setting, confidence building and dealing with rejection as well as developing business ideas and making your ideas happen.

It was devised by Carly Ward, a young person who experienced first hand how difficult it is to decide on what to do with oneself after leaving school or college and the vision behind it is to nurture the fresh talent, ideas and energy of the emerging youth of today.

The project has been accepted into schools in Buckinghamshire and Princes Risborough School are using the programme "to provide our pupils with a better insight into their own capabilities and exploring ideas which might lead to business opportunities in the future" (Sue Collings - Deputy Head Teacher).

Other interest has been expressed by Wiltshire Council who are funding the programme to be delivered in workshops, Bedfordshire Central Council who are taking it into a youth centre for Connexions clients, Befordshire & Luton Education Business Partnership have booked training and are looking at subsidising 12 schools for the programme, and Buckinghamshire Economic & Learning Partnership who have accepted the programme suppliers in to the school curriculum as an Enterprise provider. Buckinghamshire have offered every school a Connexions adviser to run the programme over 12 weeks. As you can see there has been a lot of interest!

Each of the 12 Steps includes an interview with a top entrepreneur including Richard Harpin, chief executive of Home Serve, Mike Clare, the founder of beds giant Dreams, tycoon Julie Meyer and Dragons' Den survivor Levi Roots. The interactive learning experience includes a video presentation, workbook and suggested reading for each step. And after the programme, the young people can go on to join the YES network which provides a fantastic support resource sharing ideas and experiences, meeting regularly and continuing the learning curve.

The programme sits neatly with the government’s current focus on building economic growth through encouraging entrepreneurs and high growth business start ups. Why not support the natural creativity and drive of our young people at a stage when their ideas could be the basis for their futures!

SPIRAL DYNAMICS - A VALUES TOOL

Throughout our adult life we are seeking the particular way of life by which we wish to live. This search takes us through different levels, but the quest is never ending as each stage leads to another and as we travel we realise there is no final stage to aspire to but rather we change our psychology and rules to adapt to that new search and style of living.

Spiral Dynamics is a theory of human development propounded by Don Beck and Chris Cowan and based on the work of Dr Clare W Graves, professor of psychology at Union College New York and specialist in the theory of personality.

Grave’s psychological levels (vMemes) included:
Biege AN - Automatic psychological satisfaction
Purple BO – Safe mode of living
Red CP – Search for power and glory
Blue DQ – Search for peace
Orange ER – Search for material pleasure
Grey FS – Search for affectionate relations
Yellow GT – Search for respect for self
Turquoise HU – Search for peace in an incomprehensible world
(The colours were added later for ease of labelling).

Graves depicted these levels in a Spiral Vortex (like a double helix) showing how they evolved through levels of increasing complexity. The upward turns depict the adding of new behaviours and rules on top of what already exists. The spiral represents a coiled string of value systems, attitudes and views on our world which are each the product of the particular circumstances we are in at a given time – thus our mind develops as our world changes.

We can use Spiral Dynamics to help us understand individuals by understanding their particular thinking and behavioural type while they are at a particular level in particular conditions. So don’t ask about the type of person, ask instead how to understand or manage for example, the GT part of the person, i.e. the seeking of respect for self in this person at this particular time?

Grave’s levels of psychological existence are termed vMemes (these structure how we think about things) and can be thought of as valuing systems that impact our life choices and can manifest both in healthy and unhealthy forms. Changing life conditions activate vMemes which come in phases ebbing and flowing. They exist together in mixtures, so you could have a person who is essentially in the FS phase of seeking affectionate relations whose CP search for power and glory might be activated in the competition of sports and whose ER search for material pleasure might be found in achieving well in those sports.

Grave’s model is a useful tool for assessing personal values showing how we utilise different values at different times when some levels acquire pre-eminence over others while not destroying those less dominant values which can then re-emerge in different contextual situations.
For more information visit www.clarewgraves.com