School‐business partnerships: the case of the UAE

The purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons for businesses to partner with schools from the point of view of both stakeholders. Understanding the process by which schools and business entities collaborate with the goal of improving student achievement is important to ensure success and anticipate barriers. Pitfalls and keys to success are outlined. Recommendations for school and business leaders interested in forming partnerships based on lessons learned from the literature are provided.

The paper achieves this aim by reviewing the literature on school‐business partnership formation and assessment.

Characteristics of successful school‐business partnerships are discussed.

Both business and education leaders will be able to assess the value and scope of such partnership arrangements and be able to determine if their current or planned endeavours encompass the identified keys to success.

This paper concisely examines the major, practical issues involved for those interested in forming school‐business partnerships and synthesizes the research on program evaluations while placing the issue in the context of current trends in corporate social responsibility programs.