Member Spotlight: Social Enterprise Academy
A partnership between the Social Enterprise Academy and The Scottish Government, Social Enterprise Schools enables young people through a hands-on experience of setting up and running their own sustainable social enterprise that tackles an issue in their school or community that they care about.
Education Coordinator, James Johnstone, talks to us about what being a global citizen means to him and how SEA are championing Global Citizenship Education through their work.
What does being a global citizen mean to you?
Being a global citizen is about solidarity around the world. It means understanding the commonality of the many challenges we all face and understanding how the choices we make in our everyday life affect others around the world.
Being part of a global community is a privilege but we also all have a responsibility to live in a socially and environmentally conscious way.
Why do you think Global Citizenship Education is important?
Global Citizenship Education is crucial because it not only allows people to understand global issues but when done effectively it gives them the opportunity to tackle the problems of the world head on.
It’s been really interesting to see the Social Enterprise in Schools Programme rolled out across the world because young people everywhere care about a lot of the same issues. No matter where you’re from, everyone cares about the environment, everyone cares about bullying and everyone cares about their Granny.
How does your organisation champion Global Citizenship Education?
The Social Enterprise Schools Programme champions Global Citizenship Education by offering young people the chance to have a positive impact in their community. We ask young people to tell us what they care about most. Then, through the power of social enterprise, they are given the tools to address these issues in their schools and in their communities. By starting locally and witnessing change in their own communities, we seek to encourage these young change makers to continue to think bigger, and to change the world for the better.
Recently we’ve been working to link the Social Enterprises in Scotland with their counterparts in places like Malaysia and Egypt. We have loved seeing the exchange of knowledge and experience between the groups.
What do you think Scotland's future would look like if GCE was embraced by all of our schools?
I think that by embracing GCE across schools in Scotland (and the world), we would really see a society of young people that were informed about the issues that our world is facing and feel empowered and equipped to do something positive about it.
Many of the problems we will face as a society over the coming years will need a global approach and will require countries to work in partnership. The next generation of young people, who understand their role as global citizens, will be in the perfect position to help tackle these problems.
St. Albert’s Primary School took part in this year’s virtual Glasgow Dragons’ Den (supported by Glasgow Social Enterprise Network and Glasgow City Council) and blew the dragons away with their amazing social enterprise pitch. Watch the video here to find out more about their idea, which tackles lack of diversity by writing, illustrating and publishing story books.
If you are interested in exploring our work further and getting involved in the Schools Programme, feel free to drop us an email here.