Certificate in Entrepreneurship-Learning Management System (LMS)
Certificate in Entrepreneurship-Learning Management System (LMS)
Priscilla Kauya | 2021
Abstract
Despite the apparent global improvement in gender equality, Africa continues to be a continent where girls and young women face numerous social, political, and economical challenges and barriers. Africa’s emerging youth boom creates an opportunity to raise a new generation of empowered African girls through accessible education and entrepreneurship development. According to World Vision (n.d.), entrepreneurship development is one of the best ways of empowering an African girl child.
The Certificate in Entrepreneurship curriculum is a post graduate program which equips young graduates, especially women, with the entrepreneurship skills required when starting and managing their own businesses. Specifically, the program’s curriculum is written for a young African girl who is about to complete her under-graduate studies. Using the skills acquired through the curriculum, the girl will establish a business that will economically empower herself, her family, and her community. At a macro level, this curriculum is designed to help both novice and experienced entrepreneurs acquire skills in entrepreneurship development which they will use and implement as they develop and manage small businesses, including start-ups.
Whilst classroom training is not a panacea to successful entrepreneurship, there are many entrepreneurs who require training in order to learn basic principles of entrepreneurship that can equip them to become effective and successful entrepreneurs. In most cases, African girls are not exposed to entrepreneurship as they grow up. Additionally, most school curricula in Africa are focused towards employment as opposed to entrepreneurship. It is against this background that the Certificate in Entrepreneurship curriculum has been developed in order to equip African girls with the skills they need to be successful entrepreneurs.
After completing this curriculum, students, especially young women, will be equipped with the skills they need to start successful and thriving businesses. Additionally, colleges or universities can offer this curriculum to students seeking a post graduate certificate in entrepreneurship. Furthermore, banks and other lending institutions can make successful completion of this course a prerequisite to advancement of loans since skills acquired from this curriculum can greatly reduce the chances of business failure and thereby reduce loan default rates. Associations of Small Businesses in various African countries can also make successful completion of this curriculum a prerequisite for membership.
The program’s curriculum contains six entrepreneurship courses with at least four modules each. Each module has an accompanying practical assignment/ assessment which tests the student’s understanding of the lesson and helps the student to relate the lesson to their current or future business(es).