Education Stakeholders Push for Entrepreneurial Training for Secondary Students
Stakeholders in the education sector have emphasized the importance of imparting entrepreneurial skills to students as part of the government’s objective of producing job creators instead of job seekers to narrow the youth unemployment rate.
In a workshop, stakeholders in the sector, including representatives from the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), discussed the incorporation of Wavumbuzi, an educational program and skill set designed for high school students seeking academic success.
A statement sent to newsrooms said that this change is being made in preparation for a meeting where important people in Kenya’s education system will get together to make a plan for how to effectively implement Wavumbuzi in secondary and high schools starting with the 2024–25 school year.
The “Substantive Ecosystem Contribution through Capacity Enhancement of Quest Development” workshop featured robust ideation and comprehensive dialogues concerning the various forthcoming thematic domains, commonly known as “Quests,” that will comprise the subsequent iteration of the Wavumbuzi Entrepreneurship Challenge.
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During the session, Wavumbuzi’s Kenya Country Lead, Dr. Roselyn Marandu-Kareithi, stated that the workshop represents a turning point in the effort to redefine and restructure entrepreneurial education for students.
Dr. Roselyn Marandu-Kareithi highlighted the vision of Wavumbuzi, emphasizing the aspiration for African youth and communities to recognize the significance of entrepreneurship and acknowledge that future employment is not the sole option.
She remarked that the insightful contributions of the group’s collective intelligence and knowledge during the session hold the potential to propel the Wavumbuzi mission toward becoming a sustainable intervention for Kenyan youth.
Dr. Kareithi stated that Wavumbuzi is committed to a long-term vision of deliberately preparing young people, starting from an early age, to be problem solvers and value creators, inspiring them to become job creators rather than job seekers. She explained that to achieve this vision, they have created “Quests,” which are thematic areas in emerging fields of the future.
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These Quests incorporate entrepreneurial competencies intended to encourage thinking about potential opportunities in these thematic areas, nurturing an entrepreneurial mindset and aspiration among secondary and high school learners nationwide.
Each quest incorporates a range of entrepreneurial competencies that encourage secondary and high school students nationwide to consider potential opportunities in the respective thematic areas. By doing so, they cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset and foster entrepreneurial aspirations.
The number of schools participating in the Wavumbuzi Entrepreneurship Challenge has recently increased, with the most recent iteration featuring 973 schools, compared to 254 in the previous edition. A record number of 20,300 students enrolled in the challenge, and submissions rose from 113,000 in the last edition to 531,000.
In an unprecedented development, seventh-grade students from junior secondary schools (JSS) and many students with special needs also participated. Due to its collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Wavumbuzi has been granted the authority to implement the Entrepreneurship Challenge nationally.
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According to Njoki Riguga, the program manager, Wavumbuzi aims to recognize and celebrate the exceptional accomplishments of high school and secondary school students, teachers, educational institutions, and counties.
Furthermore, she observes that Wavumbuzi has broadened its scope to include mentoring top students, Wavumbuzi clubs in schools, and the well-known Wavumbuzi Entrepreneurship Challenge.
The Entrepreneurship Challenge is an annual, online, and cost-free program that spans six weeks. Its primary objective is to foster entrepreneurial mindsets and aspirations among secondary and high school students throughout Kenya.
Students can engage with community issues, develop critical thinking skills, and suggest viable solutions by completing a series of activities and challenges that introduce them to fundamental concepts.
Next year, there are two planned activities. In the first term, learners will participate in a service learning activity, collaborating to solve a problem in their society practically. In the second term, the next edition of the six-week online challenge will be open to all secondary and high schools in the country.
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Wavumbuzi endeavors to foster the entrepreneurial ambitions of one million youths residing in Eastern Africa by the year 2030. It is a pipeline-building initiative of the companion program to Wavumbuzi, the Jasiri High-Impact Entrepreneurship Programme.
She recommended that other schools actively participate in this program because it complements the curriculum and aligns with the government’s initiative to encourage individuals to take the industry to become entrepreneurs, creating jobs for themselves rather than seeking employment.
At the workshop, the participants carefully examined the structure and goals of the Wavumbuzi Club. They integrated real-life problems into the learning process and formulated a detailed plan outlining the next steps and strategies for the Wavumbuzi.
When the workshop ended, a new, better phase of Wavumbuzi began. This new phase includes Wavumbuzi Clubs in Term I, where high school and middle school students will work together to solve a community problem through a community service learning activity; the next edition of Wavumbuzi, Edition 5; and monitoring of the best students at the end of Term III. All participants eagerly anticipated the program’s bright future.
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Education Stakeholders Push for Entrepreneurial Training for Students