Entrepreneurship: A Path to Employment
22 November 2010
Read by 1880 persons
Research reveals ambivalence towards entrepreneurship. While young people aren't fundamentally averse, they tend to favor safe choices or delay career decisions, with salaried work remaining the most prominent reference point. However, a slow but undeniable shift is visible in the growing interest in entrepreneurial careers. This interest is due to the worsening unemployment problem among university graduates in Tunisia and the destigmatization of entrepreneurship by the education system and media.
Public authorities and stakeholders are intensifying efforts to promote entrepreneurship in education. Job creation is a desired outcome of young university graduates starting businesses. In this context, the Arab Institute of Business Leaders organized a forum on Tuesday with experts and young entrepreneurs, during Global Entrepreneurship Week 2010 (November 7-14, 2010). This action is part of efforts to cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit among young students, a major challenge for Tunisia. The goal is to instill in young people the importance of being enterprising and, above all, how to motivate them to start businesses.
Encouraging young graduates to create their own businesses is among the solutions considered to address youth unemployment. In this regard, the Minister of Vocational Training and Employment, Mohamed Agerbi, highlighted the advantages and incentives for business creation. "Civil society has become a partner with whom we have sought to combine our efforts to achieve the set objectives. Today, we must think about implementing a strategy to open the school to its economic environment," the minister affirmed. The goal is to instill an entrepreneurial culture in students. Young people must also be given the opportunity to learn about job market opportunities.
Similarly, Abdelaziz Dargouth, president of CJE (likely an acronym for a Tunisian organization related to entrepreneurship), stressed the strategic role of entrepreneurship education. This education aims to raise awareness of business creation as a career alternative, but also to instill an entrepreneurial mindset and emphasize essential skills and characteristics such as creativity, initiative, seizing opportunities, and developing comprehensive approaches to problem-solving. Today, it's almost a truism: countries with developed economies—those Tunisia aspires to join in the near future—are those that have successfully promoted an entrepreneurial culture within their societies, linked to technical expertise.
For Tunisia to succeed in its development goals, it needs many individuals who can manage and create businesses, driven by a desire for achievement and success, with a sense of responsibility and initiative. Building these values cannot be the task of a single entity for a limited time; rather, it's the responsibility of everyone, at all levels of society and continuously. It's the family's responsibility, the education and university system's responsibility, and the business community's responsibility. Today, it's crucial to adopt a strategy for developing a culture of initiative. The university's role in implementing this strategy is essential, but it cannot, on its own, instill the desired values. By university age, an individual has acquired almost everything culturally; at this age, it's easier to channel, refine, and confirm values than to create them. In-depth work must be done much earlier, in primary school. There are many potential levers to use in primary education to stimulate young people's interest in entrepreneurial careers. This involves devising specific training tools to raise awareness of and demystify entrepreneurship for primary school students, allowing them to become aware of their entrepreneurial qualities early on. Several questions arise at this level: How do we cultivate these values? How do we develop this culture of initiative?
There's no magic solution, but we need to seriously, systematically, and promptly develop these tools as part of a clear strategy for developing a culture of initiative. Learning from globally recognized experiences would be beneficial. The objective is to create 425,000 jobs over the next five years, while reducing the unemployment rate by 1.5 points and meeting the potential additional demand from higher education graduates, who will represent nearly 70% of applicants by 2014.
The challenge matches the ambitions. A challenge that can only be met through a generation of young entrepreneurs who dare, who create added value, and thus employment.
Published November 9, 2010
Posted November 22, 2010
africanmanager.com
Public authorities and stakeholders are intensifying efforts to promote entrepreneurship in education. Job creation is a desired outcome of young university graduates starting businesses. In this context, the Arab Institute of Business Leaders organized a forum on Tuesday with experts and young entrepreneurs, during Global Entrepreneurship Week 2010 (November 7-14, 2010). This action is part of efforts to cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit among young students, a major challenge for Tunisia. The goal is to instill in young people the importance of being enterprising and, above all, how to motivate them to start businesses.
Encouraging young graduates to create their own businesses is among the solutions considered to address youth unemployment. In this regard, the Minister of Vocational Training and Employment, Mohamed Agerbi, highlighted the advantages and incentives for business creation. "Civil society has become a partner with whom we have sought to combine our efforts to achieve the set objectives. Today, we must think about implementing a strategy to open the school to its economic environment," the minister affirmed. The goal is to instill an entrepreneurial culture in students. Young people must also be given the opportunity to learn about job market opportunities.
Similarly, Abdelaziz Dargouth, president of CJE (likely an acronym for a Tunisian organization related to entrepreneurship), stressed the strategic role of entrepreneurship education. This education aims to raise awareness of business creation as a career alternative, but also to instill an entrepreneurial mindset and emphasize essential skills and characteristics such as creativity, initiative, seizing opportunities, and developing comprehensive approaches to problem-solving. Today, it's almost a truism: countries with developed economies—those Tunisia aspires to join in the near future—are those that have successfully promoted an entrepreneurial culture within their societies, linked to technical expertise.
For Tunisia to succeed in its development goals, it needs many individuals who can manage and create businesses, driven by a desire for achievement and success, with a sense of responsibility and initiative. Building these values cannot be the task of a single entity for a limited time; rather, it's the responsibility of everyone, at all levels of society and continuously. It's the family's responsibility, the education and university system's responsibility, and the business community's responsibility. Today, it's crucial to adopt a strategy for developing a culture of initiative. The university's role in implementing this strategy is essential, but it cannot, on its own, instill the desired values. By university age, an individual has acquired almost everything culturally; at this age, it's easier to channel, refine, and confirm values than to create them. In-depth work must be done much earlier, in primary school. There are many potential levers to use in primary education to stimulate young people's interest in entrepreneurial careers. This involves devising specific training tools to raise awareness of and demystify entrepreneurship for primary school students, allowing them to become aware of their entrepreneurial qualities early on. Several questions arise at this level: How do we cultivate these values? How do we develop this culture of initiative?
There's no magic solution, but we need to seriously, systematically, and promptly develop these tools as part of a clear strategy for developing a culture of initiative. Learning from globally recognized experiences would be beneficial. The objective is to create 425,000 jobs over the next five years, while reducing the unemployment rate by 1.5 points and meeting the potential additional demand from higher education graduates, who will represent nearly 70% of applicants by 2014.
The challenge matches the ambitions. A challenge that can only be met through a generation of young entrepreneurs who dare, who create added value, and thus employment.
Published November 9, 2010
Posted November 22, 2010
africanmanager.com
