Over 690 vocational training centres are registered with the Vocational Education and Training Authority (VETA),38 over 90 per cent of which are either private businesses or NGOs. VETA centres do offer skills training courses suitable for self-employment (tailoring, batik making, housekeeping, etc), but UDEC (2003) states that the primary emphasis on training is for employability in large public and private enterprises. Because there are few jobs available, most of the VETA graduates go unemployed or are inadequately trained for entrepreneurship. Data on the proportion of women students is not available.
In the university context in Tanzania, key informants from the University of Dar es Salaam reported that seven per cent of their students (1997 study) were running businesses while attending university, but that not many have the skills and interest to start a business. Micro-enterprises operating in the informal economy, which is what most students perceive as “entrepreneurship”, is not seen as being that attractive to them.
Since the University of Dar es Salaam Entrepreneurship Centre (UDEC) began its operations on campus in 1999, it has been lobbying the university to offer courses in entrepreneurship. In December 2001, the university adopted a policy on entrepreneurship development. The policy states that entrepreneurship will be promoted to all students through activities that will: (i) improve their level of enterprising behaviour; (ii) develop an awareness of and interest in business/enterprise; and (iii) develop their skills in starting and managing an enterprise, including access to support networks.
To support this new policy, UDEC has trained about 70 lecturers in “enterprising teaching strategies”. An entrepreneurship and small business management course is offered in the Faculty of Commerce and Management, and an entrepreneurship course is offered to all engineering students. During their third year of study, all students at the university will have the opportunity to take a business planning course, although not all students have access to it at this time (this is a capacity issue).
With respect to female enrolment at the university, UDEC key informants indicated that about one-third of the commerce students are women, 40 per cent of MBA students, and 50 per cent of arts students. Taking special measures to ensure that these female students participate in entrepreneurship courses is likely to create the seedbed for the next generation of growth-oriented women entrepreneurs.
To learn more about this author, visit International Labour Organization's Website.
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