Scotland’s Enterprising Schools is very proud to welcome Lorraine Ross to the team! Lorraine is our new Development Officer and will be working with us, Education Scotland and a number of our other partners to create resources, lesson plans and more to help embed enterprise activity in schools across Scotland.

We thought we’d take the chance to you find out more about Lorraine, her new role and the future of Scotland’s Enterprising Schools…

What is your role with Scotland’s Enterprising Schools (SES)?

I am a Development Officer. My role is to work in collaboration with Education Scotland, Skills Development Scotland and colleagues at Scotland’s Enterprising Schools to develop online enterprise education resources at each age and stage of the curriculum that are integrated with subject topics. These resources will be contextualised and mapped to Curriculum for Excellence and aligned with Building the Curriculum 4 and Developing the Young Workforce Career Education Standard.

What did you do previously and why did you decide to join the SES team?

I was originally a teacher of drama before catching the enterprise bug! As I was an Enterprise and Employability officer for 1 secondary school, 7 primary schools, 2 nurseries and 2 additional support needs establishments within Glasgow. My role was to deliver and facilitate entrepreneurial learning experiences for all learners and to support colleagues with appropriate CPD. My most recent post was as Principal Teacher of Enterprise, Employability and Wider Achievement at Lourdes Secondary.

I decided to join the SES team as I think they are an excellent resource and point of contact for every school taking forward an enterprising approach to learning and teaching. I myself as a teacher have used the online resource detailing SES partners to create highly effective partnerships across the school and subject areas. It is an exciting time to join with lots of new resources and materials in the pipeline.

Why do you think enterprise is such an important part of education?

It’s incredibly important in developing the successful learners, effective contributors, responsible citizens and confident individuals that our society needs. Schools and other learning environments are tasked with preparing our children and young people to play their part in a world that is rapidly changing. Preparing them for jobs that don’t even exist yet! We have to ensure that our young people are equipped with the skills and attributes needed to face some of these challenges. They need to have that ‘Can Do’ attitude. I believe that enterprise in education does this and leads to improving outcomes for all.

What do you hope to achieve with SES?

I hope to engage positively with schools and provide materials, resources and events that will help support practitioners in actively embedding enterprise in the curriculum and in their daily approach to learning and teaching, to develop and encourage that ‘Can Do’ mind-set and attitude in all our children and young people.