How to promote young entrepreneurial spirit and skills

When the going gets tough: Be a great servant and the generous universe will reward you greatly. Photo/Joseph Kanyi  Nation Media Group

By Christian Gaya: Business Times: 22 march 2013

The young entrepreneur’s skills should now be spread to kindergarten, primary schools, secondary academic schools, and universities, where trainees should complete their theoretical training in parallel with apprenticeship training in companies. Developing centers for young entrepreneurship in vocational schools and promoting the entrepreneurial spirit and skills among students from these schools project should be a jointly be performed together the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and Junior Achievement in Tanzania (JAT).

There is a need to set up centers in several different sectors of industry such as an architecture and construction; food and food technologies; textile and clothing; and forestry and wood processing. As part of the project, students shall be required to form a mini-company pre school and operate and run it for one year; the course to be offered is required to be as an elective to all students.

A business club with representatives from the local business community and experts from the relevant industry will be needed to be set up to for the purpose of supporting delivery and for providing practical experience. Students, schools, and the local community will be required to cooperate so as to organise and promote events such as trade fairs, competitions, and joint projects.

This model can be received extremely well, as a sustainable public-private partnership that actively involves the business community and is innovative in several ways. Firstly, the students’ involvement should raise awareness and support for the promotion of young entrepreneurship in the local communities. Secondly, it should link the real workplace with education and makes education much more market-oriented, i.e. developing the new skills needed for the globalised economy. Thirdly, the teacher should act as a consultant (mentor), and non-traditional methods of learning will be adopted.

Teaching methods should be such as brainstorming, teamwork, case-method, project-based learning, and individual tasks. Relevant study materials, teacher’s manuals and user guides for project-based learning in the new modules should also be developed and delivered to pilot schools during the project period. The use of simulations and videos should also be important components of the project. These should include the management of a simple pizza restaurant or hamburger restaurant and a video of interviews with young and older people entrepreneurs.

The young entrepreneurship skills should be designed to develop students’ understanding of the market economy and of the world of work, to introduce career research, the logic of how businesses operate and the basics of founding and running a business. The young entrepreneurship skills should focus on the business environment business startups and enterprise activity. On the other hand enterprise activity should provide students with the opportunity to put the knowledge and skills they have learned into practice, for that matter young entrepreneurship have to plan, set up and run their own enterprise activity and present an enterprise report based on this activity.

All in all indeed there is a need to promote partnerships between VET schools and enterprises, and act as an intermediary in finding work placements for both students and teachers. And to provide expert help with preparing programs and cooperate with schools on implementing young entrepreneurship education activities, particularly through project work. Moreover, there will be required to encourage both young and experienced entrepreneurs to get involved in entrepreneurship education as role models. Furthermore, it is required to raise awareness among businesses, particularly at local level and to start corporate social responsibility initiatives that would motivate more business people to get involved in young entrepreneurship education.

The young entrepreneur’s skills should strengthen economic know-how and business skills. Besides imparting sound economic knowledge, the young entrepreneur’s skills also acts on personal characteristics. It should aim to promote a positive attitude towards the Tanzanian economy and to encourage entrepreneurial attitudes among young skilled people. It should also aim to develop start-up skills in a modern and practice-oriented way. The objective is to see starting up a business as an attractive option in one’s professional career. As it leads to a young entrepreneur’s skills, therefore the program should provide an additional asset for young skilled workers.