By Edwin Naidu
The ground-breaking University-Industry Co-Creation (UNIICo-create) project, launched in Johannesburg at the end of March, marks a significant step in devising a curriculum strategy to instil entrepreneurship education in universities across South Africa and the Southern African Development Community.
However, looking back, it was remiss of the organisers not to have industry present to hear their views on the type of skills needed to make such an innovative initiative work. Ideally, business brains should have been present to contribute practical guidelines to help this regional academic network lay the foundation for such an important programme.
One hopes that businesses buy in at a later stage even if they were not invested in the beginning.
While the answer is not clear, it is evident that all hands should be on deck in addressing unemployment, which stands at 12% in SADC and 32% in South Africa. Youth unemployment in the SADC stands at approximately 20%, while South Africa’s youth unemployment rate is around 45%. This is a crisis.
It needs more significant intervention. However, full marks to the project leader, the Technological Higher Education Network South Africa (THENSA), with coordination from strategic partners OBREAL and SARUA and support from university partners in France, Finland, and Ireland, for getting the ball rolling. Business must now come to the party – one hopes they receive an invite.
The UNIICo-create project, which represents a strategic partnership between eight institutions in South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia and Eswatini, brought together representatives from several higher education organisations in the region and across the EU.
This group initiated the co-creation of entrepreneurship curricula as part of the UNIICo-create project. Their mission is to collaboratively design a curricula with industry and government that will revolutionise entrepreneurship education in the region.
The project is funded by the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education programme, a European Union (EU) initiative that supports the modernisation, accessibility and internationalisation of higher education in partner countries. This funding enables collaboration between the SADC and the EU, bringing together diverse perspectives and expertise.
Dr Sershen Naidoo, Project Manager of THENSA, correctly labelled the absence of industry as the “elephant in the room.”
Such an initiative, THENSA argued, could effectively address the pressing challenges of low job creation, limited start-up success and graduate unemployment, offering a beacon of hope for the future of entrepreneurship education in the SADC region. But this can only be achieved with industry and government at the table.
THENSA CEO Professor Henk de Jager has high hopes about changing the gloomy narrative around unemployment in the SADC region.
He believes it can effectively address the pressing challenges of low job creation, limited start-up success and graduate unemployment, offering a beacon of hope for the future of entrepreneurship education in the SADC region.
“If we are graduating students from our universities and the economy is not growing, where will they find jobs? It is for this reason that we have many unemployed graduates currently in South Africa, as well as in countries in the SADC region. We must instil entrepreneurial skills in our students,” he said.
UNIICo-create will, therefore, unite experts across the SADC and globally, ensuring that the entrepreneurial mindsets of students prepare them for the world of work, particularly for the business world.
It’s a great initiative. One hopes that the numerous partners involved in the European Union’s support for the UNIICo-create project, along with experts from four SADC countries, will make a concerted effort to attract businesses to join this initiative. It’ a step in the right direction.
However, let’s bring the elephant into the room: business leaders must contribute input and share their ideas – and solutions- to tackle the burgeoning unemployment crisis. Our collective future depends on it.
Edwin Naidu is the editor of Inside Education.
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