careers to opportunities driven by connection and the free movement of information, they need to marry innate curiosity with an understanding of our condition and the capacity to adapt when connecting people, ideas, information and resources.
If they are to use their talents and time to influence for the greater social good, they need to develop an appreciation of how the world came to be as it is, of the inherent connectedness of our qualities of life, and of the place of enterprise in fostering social cohesion.
By way of charting something of our progress in developing a view of values based enterprise, I offer the following insights into Scotch life.
In the middle of last year, I sat in the Longmore Room listening to a group of Year 10 boys delivering their final Scotch Enterprise Programme presentation to an‘ expert in the field’. Over a semester the SEP challenges boys to identify a problem and deliver a practical solution. Though timetabled, it has no classroom, the entire campus, facilities and resources being set at the boys’ disposal. Rather than a teacher, the boys have an appointed mentor, who, in keeping with the spirit of Prof Sugata Mitra’ s‘ digital grannies’, is tasked to guide and question, but not to show.
The boys were presenting their Smart Sprinkler System. The stem of the sprinkler had a sensor at the appropriate depth to read the moisture content of the soil, and so determine any need for overnight watering. I was impressed, but the clever bit was to come. The sensor was also wirelessly connected to a weather satellite and by checking the forecast for the night ahead, came to a decision: if rain were forecast, the sprinkler system would not be activated; if there were to be no rain and the sensor determined that watering was required, then on would come the sprinkler.
I thought: wow, now that’ s an example of economic enterprise that could fly. That got me pondering what the boys would have to do to bring such a product to market. And this created a jigsaw piece in our planning for all that could constitute a Centre for Enterprise.
A few weeks later, I was reviewing nominations for the 2016 Perelberg award, which is presented each Presentation Night in memory of Ashley Perelberg(’ 92), who tragically died of a heart attack at the age of 18 in his first year of university study. The award is made alternately to a current Scotch boy( or recent leaver) and an Old Scotch Collegian, who, like Ashley, demonstrates exemplary Scotch Spirit. Unable to separate two nominations, and acting on the guidance of Ashley’ s dad, I determined that the 2016 award should go jointly to Ian Carson(’ 76) and Sam Taubert(’ 06).
Driven by a dislike of food wastage, Ian and his wife Simone created Second Bite, an organisation that delivers leftover fruit and vegetables from markets, restaurants and supermarkets to community food programmes. Having been forced to suspend his Scotch career due to lifesaving heart surgery, Sam returned and went on to qualify as an engineer before requiring a further heart
“ Our responsibility as educators is to ensure each boy’ s beaker of opportunity is kept in a constant state of interaction and evolution”
transplant. In collaboration with his brother, Nick, Sam then formed the Victorian branch of Donor Mate a charity that aims to raise social awareness for organ donation.
Pondering the two nominations, I was again struck by what can be achieved for the greater good when melding compassion with economic rationale. And this got me pondering what use boys could make of economic enterprise for the greater social good. And this created another jigsaw piece in the emerging case for a Centre for Enterprise.
Earlier this year, a Year 12 boy came to see me to ask whether it would be possible for him to do a gap year with our dear friends at Tiwi College on Melville Island. The young man had visited Tiwi College as part of the Indigenous Partnership Programme, and was moved to return to give and learn more. Soon after, I was chatting to Senior Subject Teacher of Politics and Philosophy, Frank Maguire, who had just returned with nine boys from the first trial of our new Year 11 Immersion Programme( led by Michael Waugh), which placed boys and staff in situ for five days at the Ballarat Special School.
Connecting these two events made me ponder further, what might be construed and directed under the banner of social enterprise. And this created further jigsaw pieces for the Centre for Enterprise and its connection to a careers education that guides Scotch boys towards enterprise opportunities, be they economic, social or a blend of both.
A recent report from McKinsey, brought to my attention by Deputy Head of Mathematics, Dr Gareth Ainsworth, noted that 60 per cent of occupations have at least 30 per cent of their activities that are automatable. That those occupations cut across sectors and include many of the careers traditionally popular with Scotch boys only served to emphasise the change that is upon us.
Recent months have seen great enterprise related activity at the School. In addition to the formalisation of the Scotch Enterprise Programme, consideration of a new construct for Careers and trialling of a new Service Immersion Programme, there has been development of a new Coding elective to be offered from 2018, and consideration of all we do, and could do, in the context of social enterprise. Then, of course, there has been the opening of the Sir Zelman Cowen Centre for Science and the coming to form of the new Design and Technology Cube. Planned developments will see this commitment continue through a new Centre for Mathematics and a Student Centre sporting the very Centre for Enterprise that has grown from such engagements and initiatives as noted above.
Our responsibility as educators is to ensure each boy’ s beaker of opportunity is kept in a constant state of interaction and evolution, to empower him to embrace the challenges of his time with purpose for the betterment of all. This is why we set judgement in the enduring Christian values and principles of our foundation. It is why we are investing in an education that equips boys with the confidence, capacity and compassion to grasp responsibility for their own lives, create wealth and opportunity, and ensure prosperity is for all and not the preserve of the few.
In such manner, upon sound foundations, each boy’ s journey through Scotch is sharpened to a life of enterprise – of service and purpose for the greater good.
www. scotch. vic. edu. au Great Scot 5