Gathering and Analysing Information
	Being Creative and Coming Up with Good Ideas
	Managing Resources and Money
	Influencing Others and Negotiating
	Communicating Ideas and Information.

After carrying out the activity, the students log in to their accounts and self-assess their performances, again by clicking boxes and adding individual comments. They submit their assessments, the teacher makes their own assessment of each student and adds comments.

PET gives each student an on-going record of their activities and their accumulated points scored within each level of ability. It also provides the teacher with reports on each student’s development in enterprise capability. Easy!



PET enables students to develop a set of enterprise skills and capabilities which will equip them for adult life, employment and self-employment.

As educators, we know that the self-improvement journey is an individual one. However, it becomes much more effective when students are guided in their learning and the whole process is carefully structured.

Using PET means students self-assess their development. By taking part in a series of increasingly complex tasks, it enables them to spot their talents, and the areas in which they need to improve. PET defines the capabilities of someone who is enterprising, such as team working, communication, problem solving and risk taking. Assessment becomes easier to manage, and both student and teacher can monitor development and progress.

Business and enterprise schools and EBPs are in the vanguard of enterprise activity and are expected to take a lead. PET can help you to assess and measure your performance, just as it does for students.

What is Enterprise Learning all about?

In September 2005, the Government provided new funding of £60 million a year to enable schools to develop and implement strategies to focus on enterprise education. In this year’s Budget, they confirmed their commitment to further strengthening the provision of English enterprise education by fostering partnerships between primary and secondary schools, colleges and higher education institutions.

This funding allows all students at Key Stage 4 the equivalent of five days’ activity, which focuses on enterprise capability. This is defined as innovation, creativity, risk-management and risk-taking, together with a can-do attitude and the drive to make ideas happen. It is supported by financial capability and economic and business understanding.

Enterprise capability is a key output of work-related learning programmes, statutory at Key Stage 4 – which is where PET comes in.



Amanda Richards is the CEO of the West Berkshire Education Business Partnership. She’s also the person who spotted the need for an online assessment tool to help teachers and students improve and measure enterprise learning in a simple, productive yet structured way. It also had to provide reports for teachers, heads of department, Ofsted and supporting companies.

“I was having a conversation with Ed Cooper (an EBP board member and local business adviser)”, she says, “and we were aware that schools were using a variety of paper methods, which weren’t as successful. It was also difficult to manage outcomes across the years and events.”

The germ of an idea was born, and Amanda and Ed got together a good team to develop it. “I approached Matthew Evans to develop the content of the tool. He has enormous integrity and ability, he is a teacher and knows the language and challenges that teachers face from day to day.”

In the course of discussions with Vodafone on another project, Amanda mentioned the idea, saying that they needed £50,000 to get the company off the ground. Five months later, in March 2006, Perfect Education was formed, with PET, the Personal Effectiveness Tool, as its first product.

PET’s great advantage is that it has been designed by practising education professionals, who know what teachers and students need, and the company was purposefully set up as a not for profit company so that the income was channelled back into the right places to benefit the users.

“I am extremely proud of what we’re doing,” says Amanda. “We’re a good team who play to our strengths. My role is to look for opportunities within schools and EBPs locally and nationally. Matthew provides the intellectual content and liaises with schools to ensure PET is relevant to their needs. Ed is busy developing the new company. We also have student involvement in its development, and we’re getting some fantastic feedback.”

Amanda says that PET is a benchmark of partnership working. “Spotting its potential appeals to my entrepreneurial core, and that’s what I’m all about.”

If we’ve whetted your appetite, click here to find out more about PET and how you can start benefiting from it.