The Chief Executive Officer of Zeal Environmental Technologies Limited, Mr. Kwaku Ennin has called on government, allied agencies and alumni of academic institutions in the country to support efforts of academia to finance students’ entrepreneurs to establish and operate ‘design thinking’ and innovation centers.
He made this appeal at the African German Entrepreneurship Academy (AGEA) Policy Day Conference 2020 held at Swiss Spirit Hotel & Suites Alisa on 4th November 2020.
The day’s conference themed; ‘Contributions of Practice-Oriented Entrepreneurship Education for Socio-economic Development of Africa’ provided academicians, entrepreneurs, representatives from National Commission of Tertiary Education and DAAD the opportunity to deliberate on entrepreneurship for tertiary students.
Mr. Enin indicated that there are great educational facilities that continue to produce human resource development for industry. However, the major challenge is how to transfer the theory into practice. He further stressed the need for stakeholders to restructure the educational system from a theory-based approach to practice-oriented education. To achieve this, he advised that higher institutions should engage multiple learning methods and simulations, establish closer relationships with industry and introduce design and problem-solving approach into curriculum to find practical solutions to socio-economic problems.
The Head of Centre for Business Development (CBD)/Kumasi Business Incubator (KBI), Mr. Samuel Akomea stated that the main purpose of the meeting was to use the AGEA platform to set the agenda for stakeholder dialogue to promote practice-oriented entrepreneurship in higher institutions. Mr. Akomea revealed that KNUST set the pace in graduate entrepreneurship in the country in 2014. This was done with the support of the Ministry of Communication’s eGhana Project and the World Bank. The KBI, which has become the blueprint for other University incubators has over 80 student start-ups and over 1000 direct and indirect jobs.
The Pro-Vice Chancellor of KNUST, Professor Ellis Owusu-Dabo in his address revealed that Universities have started to rethink and adjust their roles by restructuring course content and mode of delivery. He further explained that currently, institutions focus on transfer of knowledge in classrooms, scientific publications and engagements of economic development through relationship between government and industries.
The Pro-Vice Chancellor thanked AGEA for setting the pace for a new way of teaching entrepreneurship through the offering of appropriate tools, methods and equipping facilitators in the various universities to ensure practice-oriented entrepreneurship.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Honourable Ignatius Baffour Awuah, indicated that the Ghana Statistical Service has projected that the formal sector will not be able to generate jobs in the required numbers to absorb the growing labour force. Clearly, Government alone cannot address all the challenges, therefore, he stressed on the need to support and learn from AGEA project to help mainstream entrepreneurship and innovation into the educational system.
Hon. Awuah proposed that young graduate employers must be singled out for recognition, support and commendation for their creativity and innovation in the midst of adversity.
The African-German Entrepreneurship Academy (AGEA) Project (2017-2020) is a 3-country project implemented by Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana, Leipzig University in Germany and INES Ruhengeri in Rwanda
The focus of the project is to promote entrepreneurship and innovation among Higher Educational Institutions (HEI) and to create a network of support for entrepreneurial development among start-ups and SMEs.
Since 2017, KNUST and INES have served as centers for HEIs’ networks and private sector collaborations. AGEA involves 18 HEIs (Public, Technical and Private) in Ghana and is being coordinated by the Centre for Business Development (CBD) of KNUST.
Through the Ghana and Rwanda AGEA Centres, over 80 experts (facilitators, coaches and mentors) from 30 HEIs have been trained and supported in the development of concepts for practice-oriented entrepreneurship promotions in Africa. About 200 students have been directly supported and trained through summer schools, coaching, mentoring and internships in Ghana and Rwanda.