Tertiary students advised to develop business ideas

The Executive Chairman of KRIF Foundation, Reverend Kennedy Okosun has urged students in high schools to set their minds on developing business ideas that would enable them create jobs before they complete their tertiary education.

He explained that  scarcity of jobs and the increased interest in entrepreneurship education where many educational institutions were offering courses on the subject, provided ample opportunity for students to learn and practice what they have learnt.

Rev Okosun who is an entrepreneur with 32 years’ experience, noted that entrepreneurship was about impacting on the society, changing environment and changing the circumstance in which people found themselves.

He therefore, encouraged young persons to aim high and psyche themselves up for setbacks that may hinder their entrepreneurship dreams of promoting positive change as they made impact.

“You have no choice but to do better than I have done as you are being trained and taught. I want you to understand that it may look difficult but it is doable” he said

Launch

He was speaking at the launch of the second edition of the “Cr8tiff” Business Plan competition in Accra on the theme, “let’s make a difference”.

The competition is a high school entrepreneurial skills development programme, aimed at unearthing the critical thinking and problem solving skills of students.

The programme which is organised by Lead Afrique International, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) expects students to identify the basic problems of the society that would require profitable and innovative ways of solving them.

As such, students in participating schools with the support of business coaches and school coordinators, would pitch their ideas and develop business plans.

The competition which started on October 1, 2018 requires schools to submit their value preposition on October 26, 2018 with the final pitch coming off on April 12, 2019.

Unemployment

The Co-founder of Lead Afrique International, Mr Michael Ohene-Effah noted that the challenge was how to find employment for the teeming youth of Africa who form about 60 per cent of the population.

“A growing number of employers are no longer looking for graduates with the most impressive degrees certificate because they do not believe academic success is a sign of professional success” he added.

He suggested measures such as more engagement of youth in decision making, teaching attitude in class, exposing students to real life situation and introduction of entrepreneurship and French as compulsory subjects in the educational curricular primary to tertiary.

Practice

The head of Shield International School, Mr Adevu Godson Kar in an interview emphasised the importance of such a competition indicating that it provided a practical platform for all business related subjects thought in school.