Team Academy Northumbria – learn to surprise yourself Tony Blackwood, Graham Baty, Ben Dale, Michael Fowle, Lucy Hatt, Nina Jussila, Lee Pugalis
[email protected] Business Studies (face to face, work-based learning), Newcastle Business School, University of Northumbria
Description BA (Hons) Entrepreneurial Business Management has been developed to complement the current work-based learning programmes offered by the Corporate and Executive Development Centre at Newcastle Business School. It is an innovative new programme aimed at those aspiring to set up and run their own businesses or those who wish to stand out from the crowd when applying for graduate positions after completing the programme. In other words, it is intended to nurture entrepreneurial mind-sets and actions. The programme adopts a fresh approach to business education designed to accelerate students’ development of entrepreneurial and business management competence through a work-based approach to learning. To support a philosophy of ‘learning by doing’, participants set up real businesses in teams and learn through managing those businesses, identifying business opportunities, developing plans to exploit these and managing the resulting activities (see Pugalis et al., 2015 for further details). Knowledge of business developed during the programme is applied in practice as a means of enhancing learning and there is also much emphasis on the development of key management competences such as creativity, innovation, leadership, communication, team working, planning and decision making. Participants are encouraged to take initiative and put ideas into practice as a means of accelerating their development and a flexible approach is adopted in which learning on the programme is designed to best meet the needs of the learner. The programme also acknowledges the social nature of learning and there is much emphasis on working in teams as a means of promoting learning and developing participants’ ability to relate to and work with others professionally. As well as staff within the Business School, the programme has been developed in consultation with central university staff responsible for supporting student and graduate business start-ups as well as local entrepreneurs and small business advisors. Indeed, the team of coaches are composed of these hands-on enterprise enabling specialists. Consultation, engagement and networking has also taken place with other educational institutions which currently operate or plan to run similar programmes. These include Team Academy at Jyvaskyla Institute of Science and Technology in Jyvaskyla Finland, where such a programme has successfully operated from their ‘Team Academy’ for the past 20 years. The 1
Team academy approach has more recently been adopted internationally (E.g. Spain, France, Netherlands, Hungary, Brazil) through relationships Team Academy have established with other educational institutions. However to date this has not included UK institutions apart from the University of the West of England and University of Westminster who launched a similar programme in September 2013. Learning expeditions to inform the programme development are on-going to Team Academies in Strasbourg, Amsterdam and Mondragon (Spain) where such programmes have recently been launched. In the Team Academy approach, which underpins the learning philosophy for the programme, learning takes place in a framework in which learners work together to reach shared goals. Students form into teams (of around 15 - 20 people) early in the programme and stay in their teams with a dedicated academic coach for its duration. Each team business has its own dedicated space and team spaces are co-located to enable networking and work on entrepreneurial projects they identify themselves. These projects are initiated and managed as part of a business set up and jointly owned by the learners.
A flexible approach to learning is employed which emphasises a coached approach, practicality, just-in-time learning, the social nature of learning, developing and applying knowledge in context, immediate experimentation of ideas through putting them into practice and enjoying learning. These can be seen in the following guidelines for learners; Take the initiative, search for instructions; Learn to manage chaos; You are allowed to make mistakes. You can learn from them; Focus your energies on solutions, not on worrying about problems; Do your best and set your goals high; See opportunities not obstacles; Dare to experiment and to be yourself; Smile, enjoy and leap in; Be humble and recreate your success again and again; and Respect others and make use of the experience and knowledge of others, so you don’t end up re-inventing the wheel.
Learning is underpinned by extensive reading and students are provided with targets in which they are required to read a specified number of books and write an essay on each. These are not summaries of the books but rather personal reflections highlighting potential implications for the student in question and their team. Books are chosen by the student to meet their own and the team’s needs and the current stage of their businesses. This facilitates the transfer of theory into practice, as well as a reverse process in which students are able to make sense of their experiences through subsequent reflection on theory addressed in their reflective essays. In order to enhance group learning, these reflections are shared with other students. Learning is facilitated through team coaching activities in which each team is assigned a dedicated coach. The coach’s role is to create a shared space where learning can take place and facilitate the learners’ developing ability to self-manage and take responsibility for their own learning and processes. Coaches attend team meetings and coach individual students, 2
providing support and guidance in a non-directive manner. This support is provided by University staff with business experience as well as expertise in work-based learning approaches and coaching skills. To support this approach, a number of staff have completed a team coaching development programme and the development of others is also planned, to be supported from other faculty who currently deliver coaching programmes. This support for students is complemented by mentoring from within the local business community and offers for such support, as well as other practical assistance (e.g. banking and financial support for business development).
Effectiveness The strengths of this approach are:
Just-in-time PULL approach led by students;
Emphasis on team working and collaboration offers real-life experiences and accelerated “maturation” process enhancing their “graduateness”;
Construction of knowledge linked to the development of the social identity of the learners;
Learner autonomy and empowerment;
Improved employability prospects – entrepreneurial and enterprising characteristics are highly valued by employer;
Enhanced successful start-up rates for programme graduates;
Student feedback in programme committee meetings and in module questionnaires has been very positive to date;
Enrolment numbers are encouraging for a new programme despite minimal marketing efforts;
Opportunities afforded for business engagement – beneficial for the whole Faculty/University; and
Captures the imagination and has attracted a lot of local support and interest.
The weaknesses of this approach are:
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The significant transition from traditional education methods required by learners to the programme;
The climate of learning is chaotic and ambiguous, requiring considerable amounts of introspection, authenticity and reflection which will not suit everyone;
Resource requirements in terms of coach availability are considerable and do not fit easily into existing workload planning models;
Travel requirements for the team coaches are significant and impact on the number of available suitable coaches; and
Legislative constraints in incorporating the student businesses in line with institutional regulations.
Promotion The entire philosophy of the programme is centred on independent learning, which is communicated from the outset. The team coaches are the “go to” person for the students (‘teampreneurers’) however their role is not to provide “the answer”, but rather to help the students to ask themselves and each other searching questions. There is much emphasis on giving the learner freedom and an understanding that with freedom comes responsibility, which is assumed by the individual and the group and this rather than a culture of blaming others, should be a powerful force in learning and achieving positive outcomes in projects. The approach embraces the notion of learning rather than teaching and methods employed in the learning process to provide learners with new insights include: dialogue, team coaching, learning contracts, reading, learning by doing, group project work. The development of the programme responds to a recent paper from The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education which argues that ‘The call for a greater emphasis on enterprise and entrepreneurship education is compelling. Driven by a need for flexibility and adaptability, the labour market requires graduates with enhanced skills who can think on their feet and be innovative in a global economic environment’ (QAA, 2012). Northumbria University’s 2025 vision also calls for distinctive offerings for students with real world focus using innovative approaches to learning as a means of enhancing graduate employment prospects. This proposal addresses this through its innovative work-based approach to learning in which students will set up and manage real businesses. As the aim is to develop students’ capability to sustain such activity after graduation the programme also supports the University’s mission to ‘transform lives, making a powerful contribution to cultural and economic development and regeneration, in the City and Region’. In terms of the strategic aims of Newcastle Business School, its mission is to develop individuals to achieve their leadership and management potential and to make a difference to organisations. The approach adopted in the programme is one which reflects that this can be best achieved through an active approach to learning. It therefore contributes towards the objective of the school to inspire excellence in students in terms of business and professional practice as well as leadership and management development. Through its
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innovative work-based nature it also specifically contributes to strategic aims of the school to:
Deliver relevant and contemporary programmes that employ innovative learning and teaching and develop independent reflective and critical learning.
Enhance the employability of individuals through personal and professional development.
Enhance the development of the region through knowledge and networks.
References Pugalis, L., Round, A., Blackwood, T. & Hatt, L. (2015): 'The entrepreneurial middle ground: Higher Education entry decisions of aspiring entrepreneurs', Local Economy, 30, forthcoming. The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2012) Enterprise and entrepreneurship education: Guidance for UK higher education providers, Gloucester, QAA.
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