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Teaching and Learning

Employability, Enterprise and Entrepreneurship in Higher Education

Embedding employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship provide the opportunities to enable graduates to make successful transitions and contributions, benefitting them, the economy and their communities.

To be addressed effectively, employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship should be embedded into all learning and teaching policies, processes and practices and considered throughout the student lifecycle, from the very start of a student programme through to completion of their studies. Graduates should be equipped to make successful transitions not just on graduation but throughout their life, and to manage their careers effectively.

Stuart Norton
Through the 3 Es – Employability, Enterprise and Entrepreneurship education we can help students to generate and apply ideas within different contexts; engaging creativity, idea generation, problem solving and innovation. As a result we will develop learners with a mindset and a set of skills that will enable to them to respond to opportunities and needs, develop their initiative, explore decision-making under uncertainty, and focus on problem-solving, communicating value to others and their own personal effectiveness to help them become better students, citizens and leaders of tomorrow. "

Stuart Norton
Senior Adviser (Learning and Teaching)
Advance HE

Want to know more about Employability and Entrepreneurship?

The information pack for Employability and Entrepreneurship contains links to all the resources and content available on this page plus more.

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Student Success Frameworks Series

Best practice frameworks, informed by research, developed with the sector for the sector

The issues impacting on student success are broad and complex, having a shared point of reference and common language to discuss, shape and review policy, process and practice can therefore be an extremely effective way of applying a consistent methodology to leading change. Engaging with our research informed frameworks in combination, will help identify smarter ways of working. This is achieved through identifying synergies between key strategic priorities that all underpin teaching excellence and the aspiration to support student success in its broadest sense.

Framework for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education

A shared point of reference for the sector

Our framework for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education in HE is an integral part of the Advance HE Student Success Framework Series. This framework is designed to inform and support the activities of those educators who interact with students through the development and delivery of enterprise and entrepreneurship curriculum and/or extracurricular activity. 

It will be of use to senior managers with responsibility for enterprise, employability and external engagement, as well as staff involved with supporting the development of businesses and social enterprises through executive education programmes and innovation-led enterprise support initiatives.

Download the Framework
Essentials Frameworks - Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education
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Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education Framework

Developed in partnership with EEUKIOEEISBESFEDI and the QAA the Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education Framework is a resource to help institutions provide the right activities and experiences so that students can identify what is involved in being enterprising and entrepreneurial, helping them to navigate their future careers.

Designed to inform and support educators who deliver the curriculum or extracurricular activities to students, the framework focuses on the ways in which enterprise and entrepreneurship education can add value to the learner’s journey, whether they are interested in starting their own venture or being enterprising when working for someone else in the private, public or voluntary and community sector. 

Download the Framework
Enterprise wheel

Would you like consultancy and enhancement support for employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship at your institution?

Advance HE can help you to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement and deliver solutions-based change with a review of the success of any initiatives against KPIs and global frameworks.

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Employability, Enterprise and Entrepreneurship reports, publications and resources

Advance HE has curated resources to support the understanding and practical application of employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship. These include employability literature reviews and case studies and reports on enhancing and embedding employability.

Lighting the Labyrinth: enhancing student success through the 3Es

In the 2024 edition of the annual Advance HE employability case study compendium, 'Lighting the Labyrinth: enhancing student success through the 3Es', case studies are brought together from across the higher education sector to answer how HE institutions can 'navigate the labyrinth of how to support students in the development of enterprise, entrepreneurship and employability skills'.

Download the collection

A guide to the Framework for Embedding Employability in Higher Education

The guide complements the framework and adds currency by including information to facilitate discussions, reflective questions to inform learning and teaching and a focus on horizon scanning and the future facing perspective.

Download the guide

A Case Study Compendium: Contemporary practices and initiatives in employability

In the 2023 edition of Advance HE's Employability Case Study compendium, an annual publication following on from the Employability Symposium, editors Stuart Norton and Maria Romero-González bring together case studies from across higher education looking at contemporary practices and initiatives to develop students' employability.

Download the compendium

A guide to the Framework for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education

This guide complements the Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education Framework by unpacking each of its layers in detail, with a particular focus on recognising practical considerations in the development and delivery of effective enterprise and entrepreneurship curriculum and extra-curricula activity.

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Adding value through enterprise and entrepreneurship education in higher education

To explore the topic of what enterprise and entrepreneurship education can add to the experiences of students the Embedding Enterprise in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences project was developed. This collection of case studies from project participants explore how to embed enterprise and entrepreneurship education within a range of different academic disciplines. In so doing, the case studies will support experience exchange amongst educators wishing to add value through enterprise and entrepreneurship education.

Download the collection

ChangeBusters

The innovative ‘ChangeBusters’ game, designed by the team from Sheffield Hallam University, constructs a ‘Theory of Change’ based on evidence from within the ARAP integrative literature review. This game aims to support users to understand the stages of a Theory of Change, build confidence, explore evaluative questions, and extend learning through application to their own context. The goal is better intervention design and evaluation, which in turn should lead to better student outcomes. 

Access the ChangeBusters game

More resources, reports and publications

You will find links to more resources, reports and publications in our information pack on education for sustainable development in higher education.

Request a pack

Join the conversation on Advance HE Connect

The aim of the Employability and Enterprise space is to enable all participants to share, connect, and collaborate with a specific focus on employability and enterprise. The community is specifically designed to remain flexible, evolving and developing as you help shape the future of the community.

Request to join the community

Employability: a review of the literature 2016-2021

This literature review aims to identify specific impact and evidence in relation to embedding employability within higher education since the most recent Advance HE literature review from 2016.

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Employability: breaking the mould

This collection of employability case studies brings together examples from the Advance HE 2020 employability symposium. The compendium includes examples of virtual placements, the creation of placement opportunities actually within university settings themselves; and the empowering of students to map and plot their employability journeys or and work-related learning experiences, and cross-fertilising the learning from employability initiatives between international and home domiciled cohorts.

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Enhancing Graduate Employability: a case study compendium

This publication is drawn from the 2019 Advance HE employability symposium. The compendium explores the challenges for HE institutions to ensure graduate employability in an environment of rapid technological advances and provides potential solutions for the sector.

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Engaging students in entrepreneurship education

This short report sets out some of the key challenges in moving enterprise and entrepreneurship education forward, in order to ensure that it is appropriately embedded across institutions and that there is engagement in it across Departments and Faculties.

Download the collection

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