MSM helps addressing youth employment in Ghana through science and technology

During a one week participatory workshop at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana (February 26 – March 2), the management of KNUST started-up a process of entrepreneurial transformation of their institute. There was a strong sense of urgency to improve the relevance of KNUST in relation to improving youth (self-) employment. In the words of one of the participants ‘Going entrepreneurial is a must’. MSM expert Huub Mudde facilitated the workshop in which the participants were analyzing and shaping their university from a customer perspective.

The participants came up with knowledge-related services that would fulfill the needs of students, high-tech companies and start-up entrepreneurs. Special attention was given to how to improve entrepreneurship education, from awareness raising up to incubation of high potential business plans. Concretely, management developed the plan to set-up a one-stop shop advisory service for entrepreneurs. Another project defined was to critically look at the learning objectives from an entrepreneurial perspective, based on the vision that the university plays a key role in strengthening entrepreneurial attributes of all students. It was proposed to form a high-level entrepreneurial university transformation committee to guide and coordinate the desired internal change.

Participants indicated that the workshop opened their eyes on the need to make the university more relevant. It helped the understanding that being entrepreneurial as university is not so much about creating business, but being an enabling environment in which students and staff develop entrepreneurial attributes and are stimulated to act entrepreneurially. ‘We should change our teaching from ‘teaching for an exam’ to ‘teaching for transformation’.

Read also about the workshop on the KNUST website