DACA wins government entrepreneurship award

Darwen Aldridge Community Academy has won a national award for its work encouraging entrepreneurship among its students.

Small business minister Kelly Tolhurst granted DACA one of the government's four Building Enterprise Skills awards, in particular due to the innovative Team Academy curriculum which all students follow in Years 7 and 8.

The judges stated that they were impressed with the academy’s "highly innovative approach" that puts the development of entrepreneurial skills at the heart of the school’s delivery of learning.

DACA students are able to run companies or social enterprises in response to genuine customer needs, providing real services and products.

Lisa Dolan, academy principal, said: “We are extremely proud and pleased to win this award that recognises the success of our approach to creating opportunities for students to build their enterprise skills.

"As a result of this focus both in and outside of curriculum time, our students have developed resilience, confidence, can-do attitudes and are able to learn more independently. This not only leads to better progress at s chool but also to DACA students succeeding in their university studies and careers.”

The Academy is part of the Aldridge Education multi-academy trust and, like all Aldridge schools, has a special focus on developing students’ enterprising skills and entrepreneurial abilities alongside their academic qualifications.

The Team Academy approach has been developed with universities and educational experts and involves working closely with local businesses and community projects.

The programme uses a 'learning by doing' approach to help students build the transferable skills help them to succeed in their education and careers .

DACA also has start-up workspaces for young entrepreneurs from the local community housed inside the school at its Bridge Business Centre.

As well as supporting young businesses this initiative, called Aldridge Creates , gives students first-hand experience of the challenges enterprises face and t he skills they need to succeed.

Students have the opportunity to get involved in real-life projects set by the entrepreneurs.

Jacob Knowles, who started the Empine Group at DACA , said: “ Over the year s the academy has given us a strong foundation for our business growth as part of Aldridge Creates at DACA’s Bridge Business Centre .

"After two years we are now moving to premises nine times the size of our current unit; we are working with clients across the UK; and have delivered print to clients in a number of countries.

"From an inside perspective we see the positive impact that the f ocus on entrepreneurship at DACA has on students and we have been lucky enough to be able to get involved with the school to show and give students opportunities in enterprise.” The Enterprising Britain A ward s will be presented to the winners in a special event at the House of Commons on October 30th .