A toolkit of resources for getting your school’s social enterprise running

What can teachers do to promote “individual growth, increased school engagement and improved equality” (OECD)? Entrepreneurship education!

What could be even better than all of the above? Entrepreneurship education for the improvement of social issues! Imagine being able to develop within your students the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to run a business while tackling some of society’s biggest issues?

Entrepreneurship education can lead your students in so many different directions and provides a remarkably flexible framework for you to lay almost any curriculum area across.


We’ve teamed up with Social Enterprise Academy to produce five lessons for Primary and another five for Secondary schools to get any class started on their journey to setting up and running their own social enterprise.


Through this unit of work, your students will develop:

  • Leadership skills
  • Critical and creative thinking skills
  • Employability skills
  • Global citizenship
  • Entrepreneurship

More about Social Enterprise Academy

Social Enterprise Academy have partnered with Cool Australia to create this condensed version of their Social Enterprise Schools program. The full Social Enterprise Schools program is a practical, student-led experience that develops citizenship and enterprise capabilities. It brings students, teachers, local entrepreneurs and the community together to develop skills, build confidence and make a positive social impact. Through the process of setting up their own social enterprise, students develop the skills, mindsets and behaviours they will need as they move beyond the school gates. Following a 10-stage learning journey, students identify a social cause, before establishing and running their own social enterprise – a business with a social purpose. Profits gained through students trading are redistributed back to their identified social cause.

Social Enterprises Education Resources

These units of lessons are based on the outstanding work of Social Enterprise Academy and their Social Enterprise Schools program.

Creating a Social Enterprise
– Years 5&6

Tackle social issues while teaching your primary students about entrepreneurship and ethical trading in these lessons.
Go to Unit

Social Enterprise Education
– Year 9

All you need to set up a Year 9 group for entrepreneurial success while making a social impact.
Go to Unit

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With Thanks to our Partner


Cool would like to thank Social Enterprise Academy for supporting the development of these lessons.