The national students’ leadership and business conference has opened in Lusaka with a call for higher learning institutions to inculcate a mind of entrepreneurship in students.
Gracing the first ever national students’ leadership and business conference, Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry Robert Sichinga observed that most of the learning institutions in the country only prepare students for white collar jobs.
Mr. Sichinga explained to the students that the formal sector cannot absorb all of the graduates hence the call for students to develop a mind of entrepreneurship.
He has since implored colleges and universities to tailor their programmes towards entrepreneurship.
He insisted that there were few jobs in the formal sector hence the need to encourage students to be entrepreneurs.
The minister said the conference has come at the right time when the country was looking for human resource to contribute to national development.
The conference is being held under the theme “maximizing your potential for career and entrepreneurial enhancement”.
And speaking earlier at the same conference, Zambia Centre for Accountancy Studies (ZCAS) Executive Director Alvert Ng’andu urged students to make use of the knowledge they will acquire during the proceedings of the conference.
Dr. Ng’andu said speakers of the conference have been drawn from various fields adding that students should tap into the speakers’ work experience.
And Zambia Institute of Marketing (ZIM) president David Kombe appealed to marketers to raise their standards.
He said currently, Zambia has got no good marketers that can compete at international level.
Mr. Kombe stressed that no marketer from Zambia can get a foreign job because the country lacks good marketers.
dreamer useles sichinga…hahahhahahahahahah! all talk no action
How in this beautiful world is this man a Minister?
Thanks
How in this beautiful world is this man a Minister?
Thanks
Actually, the learning period for MOST UNIVERSITY COURSES SHOULD BE 7 YEARS. It’s most unfortunate that most of the courses at tertiary education level are compressed into near crash courses thereby creating a culture of students Cramming the course material only for the purpose of passing their exams rather than understand and master them…
THE REASON YOU PIPO CONDEMN SICHINGA IS BECAUSE ,HE IS IN THE MIX OF KAPONYAS,OTHER WISE HE IS HARD WORKING…….
Sichinga, it is great that you have been part of the pF govt because you are a fraud and the positions you have been given all have exposed you for what a fake consultant you are.
It is simple, dont turn all trade schools in universities. you need artisans, technicians for you to do anything. A mechanical engineer does not know how to fix chigayo per say, but may have ways or ideas of improving it. civil engineers will not physically go and start digging or making a foundation of a major complex building, but they might know which materials would work in which area and the life span of the intended straucture should they use different material and building design techniques, electrical engineers, do not wire a house per say, but they have the know how of which cables work best in a residential or industrial set. Artisans do the real hands on work, engineers find solutions which are then translated into real things by artisans. Promote trade schools is the key.
Believe me, not everyone is meant to the university, and not every one is meant to have a masters of bachelors degree. the problem with the education system and the mindset in zambia is the higher you go the better for you forgetting that education is only meant to remind you of things you already know. it is a light which shows you things that are already there but now you see. Education is about knowledge of self. So dont tell all the students to go university, some have skills with their hands. it does not make them any less than those working as professors in universities. we all have different calling and i think most of us will never even know what we are good at. we might have Ph.Ds but our output wont be as we ought to have been in a field of study, or skill that we are good at.
Well said Mr. Sichinga and what a timely advice. For years our education curriculum has been geared towards white colour jobs and as a result foreigners with blue colour experience have taken advantange of us. I hope the education departments will take this advice so that we can produce local contrators to build our roads and mine our copper and local commercial farmers to feed ourselves and neighbouring countries. At the moment, our participation is less than 1% in those areas due to lack of prior relevant training
Schinga you are a failure who only thinks with your penis and getting mobile numbers from people whose age can be your gran daughters. Your a.n.u.s
Sichinga i wont insult you but i will tell you that you are a very big dissapointment.From the way you condmned Mwanawasa for you to be still in Sata’s government says a lot of who you are.You are watching the country go down the drain,you have failed to deliver agricultural imputs in your time as agriculture minister and somehow you think you are leadership material?Some of us thought you would be a potential president.I can only thank Sata for exposing you to be the fraud that we can now see.Leadership and sweetalking are two different things.
I thought this is fantastic advice from Mr Sichinga and I hope the Learning Institutions take note.
Sichinga is suppose to lead by example,,, he is suppose to be an entrepreneurial leader himself like GBM, Charlies Milupi or HH,,,,,,
if Sata fires Sichinga today,,, Sichinga will starve to death the next day,,,, so what advice is he giving??
Amayama….
Yes it is fantastic. However, it is not the learning institutions to do that. It is the Government through the Ministry responsible for education to come up with specifc policies on this issue. Secondly, the course content should be practical-teach what happens in industry. Go to ZEGA at NRDC and learn what I mean. ZEGA trianees are ready to work staright from college. I am not saying academics and research should be negcleted.
We need blue colour Zambians to run road construction, mining contracts and commercial farming. At the moment there’s only less than 1% participation by Zambian and this position is mainly owing to lack of necessary education which Mr. Sichinga is advocating for
Wanu Ngwe @1.3 The other problem is that learners are overloaded with a lot of unnecessary subjects from primary school up to university.
Educate! in Uganda ‘delivers to 16-20 year old youth WITHIN Ugandan schools a practical and relevant model of education [in this global market], comprised of a leadership and entrepreneurship course, interactive teaching, intensive mentorship, experience starting an enterprise and access to out of school networks/ resources.’
If we could engage in a similar effort, that would pay high and recurring dividends for the country, it’s a smart choice. If possible, It would be prudent to lay the seeds at from lower education lever by tailoring the curriculum to prepare candidates in a much more efficient way to fill roles in the changing landscape of global economics; the current system is begging for radical enhancements yet we have inappropriate measures suggested by many in Govt.
FYI, a Uni degree certification in the UK is 3 years. Furthermore, the is a shift in how courses are run with greater targets On skills courses as opposed to many uni certificates which in most cases are theorical and does not immediately prepare graduants/graduates for immediate employment. Well-done Bob.
This is what we call day-dreaming! This is saying something because you have to say something, not because you have something to say. Sichinga knows very well that the Zambian colleges cannot do what he is day-dreaming about. With up-hazard PF education policies…
Not every person can be an entrepreneour even if trained. Let government come up with policies that colleges and universities can implement.
A well trained workforce enhances productivity and such people are more likely to succeed when they decide to go into business. Being entreprising means working for one self and engaging others to help you. If your training did not give you the necessary skills and knowledge to produce quality you will not succeed in business as well. Quality, efficiency, good attitude, hard working. Above all, let government come up with hourly wages for various skills levels to make it easy for businesses to have the right mix of affordable labour and also do away with the counterproductive ‘terminal benefits’ burden.
@ kolwe- you must be really really dull. This is part of what you wrote above,
“education is only meant to remind you of things you already know.” Really!!!
Stay out of blogging please, you so dumb and a danger to society big time.
I understand your sentiments brother, and there was a time i probably would have reacted the same way you have. But i believe with time, you will get to understand this. It takes time and doesnt come that easy, you need a much brighter light to make you see the inside of your own mind and realise truths that were hidden deep inside you. Sometimes the one light is bright enough to see into the darkness,yet for others with poor sight, they might need it brightened a lot more to see. Thats the idea of education.
You can only understand things that you know, that which you dont know can never be understood.