Youth entrepreneurship has the potential to help address the unemployment gap as it is not only a driver of job creation and economic development (Radebe, 2019) but also supports addressing global challenges like climate change, unsustainable utilization of natural resources. As the numbers of graduates keep rising each year (Altbach, Reisberg, & Rumbley, 2019) amidst increased unemployment globally, a critical question is raised: why do the graduates’ research and innovations fail to contribute to solving these pressing issues? Research has established that the transition from being a job seeker to an entrepreneur is often hindered by inadequate institutional support, insufficient training and mentoring, lack of infrastructure, and a shortage of role models and inspiration (Shanka, 2016; Wakkee, Hoestenberghe, & Mwasalwiba, 2018).
The Project
This project seeks to address the above problem through integrating challenge-based learning (CBL) into universities and vocational colleges. CBL methodology allows students to learn and develop innovative enterprises based on a real context, while engaging with challenges and problems proposed by them or by existing key stakeholders (Chanin et al., 2018). The project’s main objective is to foster a regional ecosystem of climate-smart youth entrepreneurs. It will be piloted in Kenya where high unemployment has contributed to formulation and enforcement of entrepreneurship-focused policies that have led universities to incorporate entrepreneurship in their curricula to a lesser extent, through the incubation of social entrepreneurs (Nyerere, Opinde, Muthoni, & Mutuma, 2022). Thereafter, the project will be scaled up to other countries.
Project Phases
Phase 1 – Environment & Opportunity Mapping
This phase will run for the first 6 months. It will entail conducting an entrepreneurship system analysis – opportunities, institutional collaboration gaps that impact university-private-public partnerships, entry/trigger points, including stakeholder mapping.
Phase 2 – Project Implementation
Will run for 12 months. It will entail running two rounds of entrepreneurship challenges (one per semester). This phase is to be co-designed and co-implemented with target universities, NGOs, community groups, private sector, and the local government. Participating students will be those who have already taken an entrepreneurship course.
Phase 3 – Learning, Integration and Scale-up
During this period, the project will host a Kenya-led regional learning and exchange forum with students, alumni and stakeholders from other countries including the Netherlands. It will also conduct a Trainer of Trainers (ToT) course for the approach and establish a Community of Practice for implementers across the Orange Corners network, and publish a toolkit to be used during replication.
Expected Outcomes
It is envisaged that the project will not only support the promotion of SDG-aligned innovations, strengthening youth’s entrepreneurial environment, and bridge academia, governments, private sector and civil society, but also enhance regional cooperation across Orange Corners improve business climate intelligence in the countries where it will be implemented.
References
- Altbach, P. G., Reisberg, L., & Rumbley, L. E. (2019). Trends in global higher education: Tracking an academic revolution (Vol. 22): Brill.
- Chanin, R., Santos, A. R., Nascimento, N., Sales, A., Pompermaier, L. B., & Prikladnicki, R. (2018). Integrating Challenge Based Learning Into a Smart Learning Environment: Findings From a Mobile Application Development Course (P). Paper presented at the SEKE.
- Nyerere, J., Opinde, G., Muthoni, P., & Mutuma, W. (2022). Incubating Graduate Entrepreneurs in Kenya: Nested Case Studies of Kenyatta University Chandaria Business Innovation Incubation Centre. Papers in Education and Development, 40(1), 40-58.
- Radebe, T. N. (2019). The challenges/barriers preventing the South African youth in becoming entrepreneurs: South African overview. Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, 11(4), 61-70.
- Shanka, B. B. (2016). Unemployment experiences of young graduates and their attitudes towards business startups in micro and small enterprises (MSEs): A lesson from Southern Ethiopia. NTNU.
- Wakkee, I., Hoestenberghe, K., & Mwasalwiba, E. (2018). Capability, social capital and opportunity-driven graduate entrepreneurship in Tanzania. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 25(4), 554-572.