I volunteer with an NGO which teaches poor university students how to make money via startups and one thing I’ve learnt is that most of these young men/women don’t know anything about business aside from buying and selling. And actually, I don’t see how they would. Most of us learnt about entrepreneurship from reading articles on the internet and stories about startups (at least, that’s how I learnt). But how is the average Nigerian supposed to know this?
How are they supposed to know that most problems they see around them are not supposed to be complained about but to be seen as an opportunity? How to identify a problem that plagues people around you, proffer a solution to it and sell the solution to the people who want it is the most straightforward way to make money but most Nigerians never learnt this. So you see able-bodied, young, educated Nigerians with free time on their hands complain that there’s no work.
I think Entrepreneurial Studies should be made compulsory in SS2 or SS3, just before we get into university. So after secondary school, if you can’t afford to go to university, or if Jamb keeps you at home for one year, or if you go to university and you don’t have much money, you can have an idea of how to make money, that would not just benefit you but the community at large.
If I had one idea to pitch to Mr President, it won’t be a super tech idea, it will be this.
Hmmm… I don’t think I agree. I know that my secondary school education wouldn’t have been at all smooth if I was taking “enterpreneurship studies”. It’s difficult enough as it is in universities.
But perhaps what you really mean is “skills acquisition”?
We have Business studies already in this schools, just restructure curriculum and then begin group course assignments et al but in any case, i think it has to do with an individuals passion, Passion is what drives people to start a business and opportunity they see.
Oh there is Entrepreneurship Studies in our secondary school. Courses include Bead Making, Typing, Carpentry, i think I saw Gala Selling there too, I’m not sure. And the courses are taught “bookishly” by teacher who have no idea what they are teaching.
@Freshboi_Ekundayo You’re right, it’s all about passion, when you have food to eat. But hunger drives you too, trust me.
I don’t mean something as theoretical as Business Studies but I also don’t mean something as complex as what will probably be taught as “enterpreneurship studies” in universities (I’m assuming this consists a lot complex theories and the lot, don’t know, never took it).
@Diakon, @Obi_Ik I’m also not talking about skill acquisition. Skill acquisition without entrepreneurial skill is BS. So you learn how to make beads or how to print recharge cards, what next? One person can make beads for years and achieve nothing. Another can use that same bead making and pay himself through school. The different, like they say, is execution. How to execute is what I wish we were taught from a young age.
What I call Entrepreneurial studies is the practical knowledge of how to identify something people want which you can make, make that thing and sell it to the people who want it. It’s pretty straightforward if you know how to do it. But no matter how easy simple arithmetic is, if you were never taught, you’ll never know how to do it.
PS: I’m not saying (or even hoping) everyone will start up something. But if we all learnt how to make something people want, when you’re totally broke or jobless, you may have an idea of how to make money.