KINGSTON, Jamaica — The British Council will today launch its “Social Enterprise in Secondary Schools Research Report” at its offices located at 28 Trafalgar Road, Kingston 10.

The launch is in collaboration with the Jamaica National Foundation, the Office of Social Enterprise, University of West Indies (UWI), and The Centre for Leadership and Governance

The event will be opened jointly by Education Minister, Senator Ruel Reid; David Fitton, British high commissioner to Jamaica and Bahamas; and British Council’s director for the Caribbean, Olayinka Jacobs-Bonnick.

In 2016, the British Council commissioned the Centre for Leadership and Governance at the UWI to carry out research, which focused on the impact of social enterprise on the Jamaican secondary school system.

The topic of the research report — “How does school-based social enterprise programmes influence the overall success of students while ensuring the financial and social sustainability of schools?” — highlights how social enterprise can improve the lives of people in communities and the society by addressing specific social and environmental challenges.

“Social enterprise makes learning real and meaningful. It joins the academic to the practical and can be a way of learning for those students who do not connect with traditional teaching methods. Through social enterprise, students receive real world experiences and exposure to networks, businesses and sponsors. This helps to boost their CVs, improve their opportunities to enter higher education and increase their employment prospects. It also teaches the values and ethics of the workplace,” the British Council said in a release yesterday.