HE project set on revolutionising entrepreneurship education

The CEO of the Technological Higher Education Network South Africa (THENSA), Professor Henk de Jager, has high hopes about changing the gloomy narrative around unemployment in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.

De Jager is optimistic about the potential of the groundbreaking University-Industry Co-Creation (UNIICo-create) project, launched in Johannesburg at the end of March. 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.

A group of tertiary education institutions based in the SADC region convened in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 24 to 28 March to initiate the co-creation of a curriculum as part of the UNIICo-create project. Their mission is to collaboratively design a curriculum that will revolutionise entrepreneurship education in the region.



Participating institutions

The strategic partnership between eight institutions in South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia and Eswatini brought together representatives from several higher education organisations in the region as well as representatives from Finland, France, Ireland and Malaysia.

They are Universities South Africa, or USAf, which represents all public universities in South Africa; the South African Qualifications Authority; the Namibian Ministry of Higher Education, Technology and Innovation; the Namibia University of Science and Technology; the University of Namibia; the University of Montpellier, France; Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Finland; Trinity College, Dublin; Lerotholi Polytechnic, Lesotho; the National University of Lesotho; Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, Malaysia; as well as Stellenbosch University and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa.

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 the collaboration between the SADC region and the EU, bringing together diverse perspectives and expertise.

De Jager emphasises that the UNIICo-create project is a testament to the power of unity as all the partners form part of a larger initiative to transform the region’s entrepreneurship education.

He explained to University World News how the project aims to become a game-changer through collaboration – a concept he believes can ultimately be emulated and shared beyond the initiative.

UWN: What does this initiative mean in terms of opportunities and skills for students?

HdJ: We are aware of the current economic challenges within the SADC region. Examining the unemployment rate for the region reveals an approximate rate of 12% while, for South Africa, it’s around 32%.

Still, I think a more significant challenge for us is that the youth unemployment in the SADC is approximately 20%. In contrast, South Africa’s unemployment rate is approximately 45%.

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. UNIICo-create will, therefore, unite experts across the SADC and globally, ensuring that we enhance the entrepreneurial mindsets of our students to prepare them for the world of work, particularly for the business world.

This is so that they will have the confidence and skills to start their own businesses, as well as develop their ideas into viable opportunities, enabling them to make a meaningful contribution to society.

UWN: What impact will the co-creation of the curriculum for entrepreneurs have on students?

HdJ: We are privileged to have numerous partners involved in the European Union supporting the UNIICo-create project and experts from four SADC countries: Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini and South Africa.

The SADC secretariat, as the regional coordinating body, plays a key role in ensuring that the project aligns with the region’s development goals. We also have the Southern African Regional Universities Association, or SARUA, as a partner, leveraging their expertise and network to ensure the project’s success.

If you look at the expertise [at the gathering in Johannesburg], then one would realise what great benefits there are to ensure that we co-create the curriculum for entrepreneurs, bringing together a pool of university and education ministry experts because they know precisely what challenges their particular country is facing, and to ensure that, even if it is a generic entrepreneurial curriculum, there will be very specific, custom-made snippets of the curricula that are talking to the context of that particular country.

UWN: How does this change the learning model for SADC countries?

HdJ: What is unique about this is that the ministries of education are playing a key role in co-creating the curricula and executing this project as part of a team. It is for this reason that the ministries are involved, and they are responsible for policy reform, policy imperatives and policy changes.

Now that they are part of this team, they will be able to drive this change in the learning model of our Southern African countries jointly, which we can later expand to other countries that are not [yet] part of this project.

UWN: What is the current situation for students, and how can such a programme affect the kind of change needed to grow an entrepreneurial culture?

HdJ: What is essential is to infuse entrepreneurial skills into the curricula of our universities. It should not be an add-on. It should be that, whatever we’re doing at universities, students feel at home.

They will possess this entrepreneurial mindset, and this entrepreneurial culture must also influence the systems, processes and the way we think at these universities, from the vice-chancellor down to the students and all the staff. It is, therefore, the reason why we have a strong focus on entrepreneurial universities.

Entrepreneurial universities have a specific set of characteristics. This project will undoubtedly contribute where we have all the players present: the ministries of education, university leadership, the academics at universities and our student leadership, to ensure that we will be able to transform our participating universities into entrepreneurial universities and embed this entrepreneurial culture, not only among our students, but also the staff and, as I’ve said, across the university.

UWN: Finally, how does THENSA attract business and industry to this initiative?

HdJ: Several institutions focus on work-integrated learning, or work-based learning, whereby part of a student’s studies for a particular programme must be conducted in an industry or business setting.

And it is through work-integrated learning opportunities that we can partner much more closely with business and industry, who can accommodate students for internships and work-integrated learning opportunities. And what better way to instil this entrepreneurial mindset among graduates?

Not everybody has to set up a business, but through an entrepreneurial mindset, you can undoubtedly contribute significantly to enhancing the effectiveness, efficiency and production processes of a particular industry.

I am of the view that business and industry will join forces to co-create with us what we believe in, encompassing the principles of entrepreneurial skills and culture. They will then be an integral part of this project, which is also one of our areas of focus.

And then, in general, I’m grateful to all the partners of this EU-financially supported UNIICo-create project, by which we will utilise entrepreneurship to drive transformation in the SADC region.