Mozambique: Developing a Head for Business
Mozambique is another country that has made considerable progress in recent years. The economy in particular has shown an impressive growth ...
...with current exports threefold the level of 1990. Most of its economic success, however, can be attributed to large industrial projects in the aluminium, gas, titanium and coal industries. The small and medium-size industry sector has not yet achieved its potential. One obvious constraint is that schoolleavers have few of the skills required by the business sector. In order to address this problem, the Government decided to introduce entrepreneurship skills to the school curriculum, in addition to the traditional classes held at the secondary school level. The idea was to show young people from an early age the way to a productive future.
In 2003, UNIDO held a workshop on the Ugandan experience of entrepreneurial training in secondary schools that the Ministry of Education and Culture of Mozambique decided to emulate in a pilot operation in Cabo Delgado province. The pilot scheme was launched in April 2005 with an initial four schools and 960 students, extending to eight schools with 2,600 students in February 2006. The pilot programme revealed that students acquired greater dignity and selfesteem and exhibited more of a self-help attitude and a better appreciation of community relations.
Following the success of the pilot project, in January 2007 UNIDO expanded the operation on a national scale to include 42 schools with a total of almost 12,000 students. The programme involves eleven schools in the Cabo Delgado province, as well as three schools in each of the other ten provinces: one rural school, one urban school and one technical and vocational school. Students range in age from 13 to 21. While initially teachers will be trained by UNIDO in entrepreneurship skills, this function will gradually be taken over by local staff during the course of the project. The number of schools participating in the Programme will be further increased to 214 in 2009, with a total of 129,700 students, rising to 270 schools in 2010.
Students are shown that entrepreneurs create business, and that business generates employment, income and wealth. The Entrepreneurship Curriculum Programme aims at fostering an entrepreneurial attitude. Before they enter the business world, students have a chance to learn the basic skills necessary to identify what people are interested in buying, how to turn opportunities into business and how best to manage enterprises in a competitive environment. They are shown the importance of paying attention to the community as well as the natural environment. They also acquire the qualities of creativity, innovation, resourcefulness, planning and leadership that are the trademarks of successful entrepreneurs. The course combines three elements: classroom teaching, the involvement of prominent entrepreneurs who serve as role models, and practice in starting a business while they are still at school. The expansion of entrepreneurial human resources will form a national foundation for a growthoriented economic environment. It will also represent an important step towards the reduction of poverty by producing a sufficient number of new entrepreneurs to build up a competitive private sector in Mozambique.
The scheme has already attracted a great deal of attention and many students who are not currently registered in the pilot Entrepreneurship Curriculum Programme classes as well as others who have already left school have said they would like to join the classes.
To give the community a better appreciation of the Entrepreneurship Curriculum Programme, the programme’s achievements were put on display in July 2006 in Cabo Delgado’s capital, Pemba. The venue was the Second National Festival of Traditional Music and Song. Mozambique’s President, Armando Guebuza opened the event and then visited the exhibition.
