Why Jubilee Government must start promoting entrepreneurship training in schools

Kenya: It has been said that factor-driven economies tend to have higher self-employment rates than efficiency-driven or innovation-driven economies.

Factor-driven economies are generally highly sensitive to world economic cycles, commodity prices and exchange rate fluctuations.

In efficiency-driven economies, there is heavy investment in infrastructure, business-friendly government administration and strong investment incentives.

Innovation-driven economies are characterised by a high share of services in the economy and they are quite resilient to external shocks.

As a factor-driven economy, Kenya boasts a high self-employment rate amid the reality of extreme poverty in many places. In every little town and city, one is likely to encounter men and women hawking different wares.

This is a critical mass of self-employed people making a living in an otherwise stringent economy. They are not only products of a struggling economy, but also of education and cultural systems that put more emphasis on ‘being employed’ than ‘being an entrepreneur’.

Outside the box

In other words, our education system, which is a reflection of our own thinking, has no place for thinking outside the box - for innovation.

It would seem that there are myriad bureaucratic tapes that play in a person’s head that tend to limit his or her ability to rock the boat of acceptable practices and beliefs.

Certain aspects of our cultural and religious roots smother innovattion. The oft-repeated phrase, “Nobody has ever thought that way before”, especially when said in reference to an innovative idea, is one of the most oppressive statements in Kenya today.

It has been said that Kenyans have excellent memories and that is why they tend to excel in studies that require rote learning. I will add that they generally do poorly in money matters — at least as regards understanding how money works and how to reap the best returns from it.

A key tenet of the Jubilee government’s manifesto is the creation of employment opportunities for the youth. Therefore, the notion of entrepreneurship needs drumming up right from the formative stage, also called the ‘pre-entrepreneur stage’ (10-19 years), through to the ‘building entrepreneur’ stage (20-25 years) and finally the ‘emergent entrepreneur’ stage (26-30 years).

It’s baffling to note that whenever you ask children what they want to be later in life, you very rarely hear them say manufacturer or entrepreneur. They all seem motivated to be employed.

Not that this is a bad goal; not everyone is cut out for self-employment. However, it’s a serious matter for the country if year in, year out every child thinks of being employed and not becoming an employer, a creator of jobs.

It’s even worse if those with natural inclinations to entrepreneurship are not nurtured to achieve their goals.

 Economic growth

But then again, the idea that one cannot give what they don’t have makes sense if primary and secondary school teachers, and even professors at universities, lack the skills, inclination or curricula to mentor budding entrepreneurs.

Promoting entrepreneurship is important for innovation and overall economic growth. That’s why there is urgent need for counties to boost entrepreneurship and self-employment ventures as strategies for promoting local economic development.

There is need for our school curricula to include entrepreneurship training from upper primary (Class 5-8) and in secondary school.

This training should not be confused with enterprise creation, which ideally should not interfere with students’ learning since it is the end product of entrepreneurial training.

During the pre-entrepreneur stage, the following ought to be imparted to learners: entrepreneurial skills, not merely managerial skills; generic and horizontal skills; teacher training; and formal and informal network building within the local entrepreneurial environment.

The ideal of transmitting generic and horizontal skills is to make students more creative and innovative, pro-active, self-confident, less risk averse and capable of recognising opportunities.