Enterprise Learning: A Challenge to Education?

Abstract

The northern part of Sweden is characterised by depopulation and relatively high levels of unemployment among young people. As a consequence, a number of projects have been established for the purpose of strengthening young people's creativity and spirit of enterprise. The aim of this article is to problematise the concept of ‘enterprise education’ as understood in Swedish schools. This is done by visualising the rhetoric that surrounds the effort of introducing Enterprise in Schools (‘Företagsamhet i skolan’) and by trying to understand what the concept means in practice from the perspective of apprenticeship theory. The authors' research involves classroom observations and interviews with teachers and students from different schools. The results show that the discourse about Enterprise in Schools is based on catchwords such as cooperation, power of initiative, creativity and activity. The authors' studies of the organisation and implementation of the teaching have visualised the collaborative aim and emphasis on learning through schoolwork.