Zambian Mulungushi University team visited LAB Lappeenranta

Ceezam project (LAB 2023) team members ‒ Terhi Tuominen, Ville Lehto, Leticia Thomas Fillol and Antti Pinomaa ‒ are developing the entrepreneurship education of Zambian Mulungushi University (Tuominen 2023a; Tuominen 2023b).  One of the main outcomes of the project is that five Zambian team members from Mulungushi University visited also one week at LAB University of Applied Sciences, Lappeenranta, on November 2023.

During the visit, partners from Zambian Mulungushi University got familiar with the entrepreneurship ecosystem of LAB and LUT as team members visited Business Mill and Jamie Hyneman Center and got familiar with the Green Campus Innovation and 4SUS sustainability tool for start-ups.

Zambian team visited also the local Finnish company Afstor who has delivered solar cookers to Zambian Monze villages (see also Tomas Fillol & Pinomaa, 2023). Mulungushi University teachers and researchers were involved in the LAB student group meetings in which team learning methods have been applied. Part of the project is to implement capacity building with Mulungushi University by introducing innovative, practical, and problem-solving team learning methods that emphasize teamwork and dialogue.

Planning short courses of entrepreneurship

One of the main outputs of the Ceezam project include making the development plan for entrepreneurship education of Mulungushi University and planning for providing the short courses of entrepreneurship. Development plan includes specific short- and long-term goals, outcomes, impacts and methods of how team learning methods can be implemented in the Mulungushi University.

Short-term goals include such as giving short presentations / workshops of the team-learning method to important decision-makers of the Mulungushi University, adapting the team-learning method to the current curriculum by creating student and coach guidelines for team learning and training the trainers of team learning methods. Long-term goals include such as shifting from fixed courses to flexible professional competence theme and creating Innovation Entrepreneurship Ecosystem that can impact regional vitality and increase the entrepreneurship boost (more businesses are being established, increased student employability).

The goal is also that the informal short courses of entrepreneurship could be offered in rural villages for those people who have difficulties in getting access to formal degree of education in Zambia. Previously, project team has collected data for the basis of the development (Tomas Fillol & Pinomaa 2023). Short courses will be created based on the needs of the community members (identified entrepreneurship needs, interests and potentials).

Based on the conducted interviews in the villages in the project and from the notions from local team members, there is need for following contents for short courses for villages in Zambia: 1) understanding generic and specific entrepreneurial competencies, 2) how to transfer from informal to formal businesses, 3) understanding different value chains and cooperative entrepreneurship. By so far, agricultural businesses, lifestocks and various forms of small businesses have been the main fields of entrepreneurship in Zambia.

References

LAB. 2023. Ceezam ‒ Yhteisöllisiä yrittäjyyskasvatuksen menetelmiä Sambiaan – communal entrepreneurship education. Project websites. Cited 11 Dec 2023. Available at https://lab.fi/en/project/yhteisollisia-yrittajyyskasvatuksen-menetelmia-sambiaan-communal-entrepreneurship-education

Tomas Fillol, L. & Pinomaa, A. 2023. Empowering Zambian communities with solar cookers. LAB Pro. Cited 11 Dec 2023. Available at https://www.labopen.fi/lab-pro/empowering-zambian-communities-with-solar-cookers/

Tuominen, T. 2023a. Yhteisöllisiä yrittäjyyskasvatusmenetelmiä Sambiaan. LAB Focus. Cited 11 Dec 2023. Available at https://blogit.lab.fi/labfocus/yhteisollisia-yrittajyyskasvatusmenetelmia-sambiaan/

Tuominen, T. 2023b. The effects of solar stoves in rural villages in Southern Zambia. LAB Focus. Cited 11 Dec 2023. Available at https://blogit.lab.fi/labfocus/en/the-effects-of-solar-stoves-in-rural-villages-in-southern-zambia/