Alison Price and Lisa McMullan of Enterprise Evolution, The Women’s Organisation’s consultancy brand, travel to Nanjing on a 10-day mission. Tony McDonough reports.
Experts from The Women’s Organisation in Liverpool have spent 10 days in China passing on entrepreneurial skills to teachers in Nanjing.
Alison Price and Lisa McMullan are principal consultants for Enterprise Evolution, The Women’s Organisation’s consultancy-brand.
They travelled to the second-largest city in Eastern China to deliver workshops in entrepreneurial teaching techniques to more than 125 teachers and met with colleagues from more than 10 institutions in the Jiangsu region.
They have developed a bespoke programme for educators in China that includes more than 30 different teaching techniques, to help teachers encourage entrepreneurial skills in their students.
As part of a national five-year plan, the Chinese government issued a directive that all students should receive 30 hours of entrepreneurial teaching.
These latest programmes were delivered to the Nanjing Vocational Institute of Industry and Technology, and the Jiangsu Vocational Institute of Commerce.
Lisa McMullan, projects manager and principal consultant of Enterprise Evolution, said their techniques have proved a big hit with Chinese educators.
She said: “It is great that they have chosen to come to the UK for this programme, rather than the US. They think our system relates better to theirs.”
She added that Liverpool’s global reputation was also a key factor.
“People know Liverpool – Liverpool has an identity, whether it is football or music,” she explained.
“There’s just that connection, which we find useful in building our connections, and it also helps that we are twinned with Shanghai.”
Enterprise Evolution helps teachers be more creative in the classroom, so they engage more with their students, helping them to think more creatively.
Enterprise Evolution has also delivered similar entrepreneurial schemes for clients in Thailand, and continues to work with organisations in eight countries throughout Europe.