1. Business environments are facing constant CHANGE due to GLOBALISATION, technological advances, changing consumer demands and new ways of organising work. The world of employment is also changing with new OCCUPATIONS emerging and changing employment patterns such as CASUAL and CONTRACT WORK and SELF-EMPLOYMENT. The most successful businesses are those that can ADAPT to change and the most successful workers are those who are ADAPTABLE, FLEXIBLE and CREATIVE. Both businesses and individuals therefore need to be ENTERPRISING, responsive to new challenges, and need to be able to view change as an OPPORTUNITY for improvement.

2. Enterprise is about the development of skills and attitudes that enable an individual to recognise opportunities, manage risks and mobilise resources. It is an essential ingredient for success in the workplace.

3. Business organisations need to foster a culture of enterprise if they are to survive and grow.

4. Individual employees need to develop enterprise skills to make an effective contribution in the workplace and also to find career pathways that enable them to earn a living in a rapidly changing labour market.

5. Away from the workplace, people need enterprising attitudes, skills and behaviour to participate effectively in society. Enterprising individuals are able to make things happen and are able to look after themselves and other people.

6. The use of enterprise skills contributes to an individual’s development of lifelong and work-related skills. An individual who is able to become enterprising will find that they are more connected, engaged and resilient.

7. The characteristics identified as demonstrating enterprising behaviour include responsibility, flexibility, evaluation, initiative, decision-making, negotiation, organisation and creative thinking.

8.  FLEXIBILITY  EVALUATING  INITIATING  DECISION MAKING  NEGOTIATING  ORGANISING  THINKING CREATIVELY

9.  Flexibility is the ability to accept and work with change when it is necessary. If arrangements have to be changed for a good reason, there is no sense in insisting that the original plans go ahead. At work, you may need to have the flexibility to change from one job to another to cover someone who is away sick. You may be required to alter your working hours, or undertake training to acquire new skills.

10.  When you take time to look back at what you have done, and give some thought to how it can be improved, you are evaluating it. At work, you evaluate your performance on a regular basis: Are your skills improving? Are you learning the job? A work team would be required to monitor and evaluate their achievements against agreed goals and timelines.

11.  To initiate is to have the confidence to start something new. It can mean being the first to speak up in a group of strangers who need to get to know each other and work together. It can also mean making a start on a project or putting a new idea into practice – identifying and assessing opportunities. At work, you may have an idea of how productivity can be improved or how to prevent waste – for example, making the workplace more environmentally friendly. It is easier to initiate something if you have done your research and worked out what it involves. This knowledge will give you the confidence to speak up or get started.

12.  You have to make all sorts of small decisions every day: what to wear, what to have for lunch. Then there are more important decisions, such as the subjects to choose at school. You have good decision-making skills when you can weigh up the pros and cons of different choices and select the best option. This requires good thinking skills and the ability to analyse and assess things quickly. Decision-making also requires an ability to plan ahead and anticipate future situations and consequences of actions. With decision-making comes responsibility for that decision. At work, you may need to make a quick decision about how soon you can deliver something or which task to do first when all tasks have high priority.

13.  Negotiating involves very good communication skills and is useful in problem solving. You are negotiating with people if you swap chores or materials. It involves persuasion and compromise. At work, negotiation is used when a team works out who is taking responsibility for each part of the task to be done. Excellent negotiation skills are needed to make a big business deal or to finalise a workplace agreement that everyone will accept. Negotiation skills help you to resolve conflicts and cope with stress and tensions in the workplace.

14.  This means gathering together what you need for a task and using it wisely with the least amount of waste. It may involve selecting and ordering the items you need and assessing the correct quantities. You may do this already – for example, if you are making a meal you need to collect or buy all the ingredients. If you are involved in workshop activities, you may be gathering up the right-sized pieces of wood for making a bookcase. At work, you would probably need to gather larger quantities of items for any particular task. For a business to succeed you can’t afford to waste anything – time or materials – so you always need to work out the best way to use any materials and plan for the most productive use of your time.

15.  Creative thinking involves ‘thinking outside the square’. You need to look at situations from different angles and use methods such as word association and brainstorming to get energy and ideas flowing. An ability to generate and use creative ideas and processes is a characteristic of an enterprising person.