Enterprise Coaching is still new. \u00a0It comes in many shapes and forms and goes under different names. \u00a0For some it is a recruitment sergeant for mainstream business support – scouring the ‘hard to reach’ for people with the potential and desire to explore options around self-employment and entrepreneurship, preparing them for referral to the mainstream. \u00a0A kind of enterprise skimming activity.<\/p>\n
For others, including yours truly, it is a more radical relationship with\u00a0clients\u00a0to help them explore how more enterprising attitudes and skills might help them to develop more influence over their own futures and help them to become \u00a0more active and engaged citizens. \u00a0 It is as closely\u00a0related to the development of the wellbeing agenda, cohesive communities and PSA 21<\/a> as to the narrow increase of Gross Domestic Product and reduction of benefit dependency.<\/p>\n But this Award has the hand of Government in it. \u00a0The majority of these <\/em><\/strong>Enterprise Coaches will be branded – ‘Solutions for Business – Funded by Government’. \u00a0They\u00a0will\u00a0be focused on entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n <\/a>The majority of providers of enterprise coaching come from a background in business support and advice. \u00a0I don’t expect many of them to see this as a\u00a0problem.<\/p>\n SFEDI Enterprises have developed an ‘Endorsed Award’ and the role of the Enterprise Coach has now been quasi officially defined. \u00a0It IS about coaching people to ‘increase their capacity to be enterprising which might include self-employment’ (and business start-ups).\u00a0 On close inspection the qualification is almost all about self employment and starting a business.<\/p>\n Enterprise Coaches can join the\u00a0rank\u00a0and file of ‘outreach workers’ foisting another policy goal of\u00a0government\u00a0onto unsuspecting\u00a0deeply\u00a0suspicious\u00a0people living in areas of multiple deprivation. \u00a0 Once again we are in danger of missing the chance to do something different and radical that might make a real difference.<\/p>\n But suppose that I am wrong and SFEDI Enterprises are right. \u00a0That the Great British Taxpayer, and service users in some of our most deprived communities, are well served by a small army of Enterprise Coaches acting as recruitment sergeants for mainstream business support.<\/p>\n (If you think this overstates the case let me refer you to assessment criteria 3.3\u00a0Support people to identify and overcome their own barriers to employment or self employment<\/em> (be warned there are several 3.3s in the Award – this is just one of them). \u00a0The award talks of ‘overcoming clients barriers and objections’.)<\/p>\n There is just one criterion that I could find that hints that self employment and starting a business might not be right for everyone.\u00a0 It requires that the Enterprise Coach should\u00a0Explain when self employment may not be a viable option<\/em>. \u00a0This puts the Enterprise Coach as judge and jury – deciding whether the\u00a0client\u00a0is capable of achieving their ambitions or not. \u00a0There is no such judgemental clause in relation to starting a business – just self-employment. \u00a0In my opinion this demonstrates a misunderstanding of the coaches role to say the very least. \u00a0‘Judgemental’ is not one of the four\u00a0approved\u00a0intervention\u00a0styles!<\/p>\n The whole tenor of the Award is to move clients towards self employment and start ups. \u00a0There is little explicit recognition that the role of the coach is to help\u00a0clients\u00a0to look at these as two options among many for making progress.\u00a0 Nor is there any mention in the award of the coach helping the client to explore the potential risks associated with either self employment or starting a business.\u00a0 This is part of the Enterprise Fairytale. It is ALL upside.<\/p>\n I know from personal experience that this Enterprise Fairytale leaves some people in debt, with visits from bailiffs, and their relationships and health under immense strain. \u00a0I get to work with them when they contact me\u00a0occasionally\u00a0through this blog. \u00a0Businesses that are ‘Dreams’ on paper sometimes turn into ‘Nightmares’ in reality.\u00a0 The Endorsed Award, like so much publicly funded enterprise propaganda, chooses to ignore the potential downsides.\u00a0 Indeed if the client should express reservations about losing money the award actively encourages the coach to ‘overcome’ them.<\/p>\n I spent a couple of hours getting to grips with this document and read it carefully. Structurally it is not very intuitive. However, its structure and the minor errors and typos are the least of its problems.<\/p>\n It is the impact it could have on ‘licensing’ sometimes poorly qualified, poorly trained, poorly paid, poorly experienced and on\u00a0occasion\u00a0poorly managed and supervised ‘coaches’ to go out there and encourage people to rush into risky endeavours for which they are often ill prepared that worries me. \u00a0And enabling them to do this in some of our areas of greatest multiple deprivation. \u00a0These\u00a0communities\u00a0deserve better.<\/p>\n NB I can find no expectation that Enterprise Coaches should seek effective supervision for their work – which is I\u00a0believe\u00a0a\u00a0requirement\u00a0of most of the major professional coaching accreditation bodies.<\/p>\n Not only will we weaken our enterprise culture (as more people experience the unanticipated downsides of enterprise) we may also significantly decrease the quality of our small business stock as people rush to\u00a0enterprise\u00a0without the skills and experience that\u00a0they\u00a0require to serve their customers well and profitably. \u00a0Yes I have seen this happen too, on several\u00a0occasions. It leads to more debt, desperation and poverty.<\/p>\n The fact that Enterprise Coaches will have an Endorsed Award may promote a sense of comfort and wellbeing in funders and service users that may be misplaced, unless the award provides reasonable guarantees that coaches will do no harm and may do good for the majority of service users. I am not sure that this one does. \u00a0But these are just my opinions.<\/p>\n Some criteria from the award that are, in my opinion, too ‘open to interpretation’ include:<\/p>\n Personally I am very comfortable at this stage in its development for the enterprise coaching role to be interpreted in many different ways. Enterprise Coaching on a University Campus will differ from Enterprise Coaching in a super output area. Rural models will differ from urban. We should let differences flourish and seriously look to share ‘interesting practice’ across the sector. Unfortunately at the moment I can find little serious reflection on ‘what is working’ as most programmes paint an extremely positive picture to support applications for further extensions to their funding. High failure rates, and high rates of loan defaults are ignored as we announce how many hundreds of businesses have been created.<\/p>\n If Enterprise Coaching is to have a respected future then it needs a standard setting body that does not just reflect current practice in order to turn the handle on the qualifications and funding machine, but challenges the sector to raise its game. I have watched SFEDI engage with business advisers and enterprise professionals ‘where they are at’ for over a decade now. Suffice to say progress has been slow.<\/p>\n The new award has some technical holes, but politically too it is ‘interesting’. \u00a0It is not a full qualification – but an Endorsed Award.\u00a0 With a light touch on assessment and verification, it is designed to be accessible to\u00a0those who may aspire to this role but do not have sufficient or the appropriate experience to begin to practice or apply for posts of this nature. <\/em>The National Award is not an assessment of competence. \u00a0It is not a measure of a person’s\u00a0ability to do the job to the standard sets by the industry. \u00a0I am not really sure what it\u00a0is <\/em>a measure of. \u00a0Potential perhaps?<\/p>\n Part of the assessment requires observation of the coach working with a ‘real’ client, which is a concern if you are one of those without\u00a0sufficient\u00a0or the appropriate experience<\/em>. \u00a0SFEDI recommend ‘volunteering’ for such people ‘where learning support is available’.<\/p>\n To be an effective enterprise coach, to establish transformational relationships and maintain them over a period of time to help service users make a real difference in their lives is a demanding job, both emotionally and technically.\u00a0 The fact that we are unwilling to pay the people who do this work what it is worth is not an excuse to water down the standards and allow those without sufficient\u00a0or the appropriate experience <\/em>to gain the award.\u00a0 But politics being politics I fully expect that when the enterprise coaching award becomes a qualification and gets slotted into the national framework it will be at Level 3.\u00a0 Business adviser qualifications are at Level 4.<\/p>\n All in all I think this is an inadequate, if well\u00a0intended,\u00a0attempt to provide professional development opportunities and ‘recognition’ \u00a0for people (who may not have the required experience) to work with others on developing their capacity for enterprise, considering\u00a0self employment\u00a0or starting a business. \u00a0I refuse to believe that is is designed to sell watered down business adviser training and ‘quality assurance’ through SFEDI endorsed ‘Centres of Excellence’, which I believe will be the only routes to access the Endorsed Award.<\/p>\n Either way the Endorsed Award frames the role of the enterprise coach in a \u00a0narrow and limiting way and will, in my opinion, do little to help us develop the ‘enterprise culture’ that we aspire to.<\/p>\n The job of\u00a0engaging\u00a0people in some of our most deprived\u00a0communities\u00a0on the journey towards living more enterprising lives, offering them a relationship that\u00a0they\u00a0can use to transform their own futures, and helping them to adopt sometimes radically different behaviours and choices deserves better. \u00a0These are not second class business advisers.<\/p>\n They need to be first class enterprise coaches.<\/p>\n Details on the SFEDI Enterprises Endorsed Award for Enterprise Coaching can be requested here: http:\/\/www.sfedienterprises.co.uk\/contact<\/a><\/p>\n But perhaps I have got it wrong. \u00a0It would not be the first time.<\/p>\n Perhaps the awards will provide us with a solid platform from which excellent Enterprise Coaching services can flourish. I have my doubts but I\u00a0sincerely\u00a0hope they are proven to be misplaced.<\/p>\n![\"Solutions](\"http:\/\/localenterprise.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/03\/sfb.jpg\" "\\"SFB\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n