Poor lecturers add to woes about entrepreneurship, SDGs

AFRICA

How can entrepreneurship education contribute towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Southern Africa and elsewhere in Africa? What are the challenges, and which strategies can be used to develop entrepreneurial skills in tertiary education in Africa?

These are some of the issues that Dr Mamosa Thaanyane, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of the Free State in South Africa, and Thuthukile Jita, a professor of educational studies and the research coordinator at the same university, examined in their contribution to a new book, Internationalisation of Higher Education for Sustainable Development: A Southern African perspective, which Brill released on 23 June 2025.

The book, edited by Professor Kudzayi Savious Tarisayi of the School of Mathematics, Sciences and Technology Education at North-West University in South Africa, highlights how quality higher education could be used to achieve SDGs in Southern Africa and beyond.

In the chapter ‘Conceptualising Entrepreneurship Education in Higher Education: A case of Lesotho and South Africa higher education’, Thaanyane and Jita explored the potential of entrepreneurship education in achieving SDGs by equipping graduates with the skills to drive innovation and create jobs.

They identified entrepreneurial education as a specialised form of education focused on equipping individuals with the knowledge, skills, and motivation to identify opportunities, manage risks, innovate, and create new ventures. The authors argue that entrepreneurship education goes beyond simplistic business training as it emphasises developing entrepreneurial mindsets and behaviours.

However, their primary concern is that, although entrepreneurship education offers opportunities to break the cycle of poverty by creating decent employment opportunities and providing training in different skills, it is not given much weight by lecturers at most African universities and colleges, “even when research shows that higher education can use entrepreneurship education to develop skills that combat high rates of unemployment among youth upon graduation”.

Many students lukewarm about business

Thaanyane and Jita emphasised that entrepreneurship education can enable students to develop critical thinking and creativity to generate new concepts and solutions to problems. In this regard, they noted that it exposes students to innovative opportunities that are not available in other academic programmes.

Whereas exposing entrepreneurial education to tertiary students is expected to spark interest in entrepreneurship and a desire to start business ventures, Thaanyane and Jita note that this is not the case in South Africa and Lesotho, and so many other African countries. “Many graduates often lack this spark, implying that they do not possess the relevant skills,” they state.

While some students may have positive attitudes toward entrepreneurial education and consider it a desirable career choice, this alone is insufficient to drive entrepreneurial engagement. The authors also note that others may not want to be entrepreneurs, due to the absence of successful role models and the abundance of uninteresting survivalist enterprises in their neighbourhood.

Drawing insights from Dr Takawira Munyaradzi Ndofirepi, a postdoctoral researcher at the Graduate School of Business Leadership at the University of South Africa, Thaanyane and Jita state that there are high rates of unemployment in South Africa among young graduates who are not absorbed by the job market because they do not meet the demands of employers.

Sharp focus on theory

In an earlier study, Ndofirepi argued that, despite the common view that entrepreneurship education and training at African universities would nurture future entrepreneurs, little is known about the mechanism through which this intervention impacts its intended outcomes.

However, he stated that, for entrepreneurship education to succeed in Africa, the competencies and attitudes imparted through such studies should prepare young graduates to confront the ambiguities and difficulties that are inherent in contemporary social and economic environments.

In this regard, Thaanyane and Jita fault entrepreneurship education in South Africa, Lesotho, and other African countries, which has failed to change what happens in higher education classrooms.

They claim that teaching is didactic and focuses on students’ acquisition of theory rather than on skills on which future learning would be built. In effect, didactic learning is a teacher-centred method whereby the instructor is the primary source of information, focusing on theoretical knowledge.

According to Thaanyane and Jita, lecturers should have experience, knowledge, and skills regarding entrepreneurship education to teach their students through student-centred methods, which allow them to gain the necessary employability competences to achieve SDGs.

They claim that many lecturers are struggling to teach entrepreneurship education because they lack sufficient knowledge and skills. Subsequently, many lecturers are unable to implement the excellent ideas of building entrepreneurial skills, the two scholars assert.

Over-ambitious curriculum reforms

Lecturers need locally relevant, up-to-date examples to deepen their expertise and achieve the primary curriculum objectives, the chapter reads.

In the opinion article, ‘Busy going nowhere: Curriculum reform in Eastern and Southern Africa’, British education consultant Roger Cunningham stated that, in the countries in these two regions, curriculum reform and implementation have generally proved too ambitious for the education systems.

According to Thaanyane and Jita, the adoption of entrepreneurship education in African higher education has been challenging, particularly due to lecturers’ lack of understanding of the concept, its aims, practices, and outcomes, and the use of inefficient traditional teaching methods. They argue that, if students were mentored on how to set up and run a business, more graduates would be able to enter the entrepreneurial world and contribute effectively to the achievement of SDGs.

Internships, competitions recommended

Thaanyane and Jita state that entrepreneurship education is heavily examination-oriented, and students are drilled to commit the course material to memory. “This mode of teaching limits students’ ability to communicate practical aspects of the subject, preventing the development of entrepreneurial skills,” they argue.

Highlighting strategies for incorporating entrepreneurship education in higher education in Africa, the two academics proposed the use of internships by which students can be temporarily attached to successful startups and established businesses, which can provide them with real-world entrepreneurial experience.

They also recommended the establishment of incubators and accelerators on campus to support student-led startups with resources, mentorship, and funding. According to the two scholars, this would, not only enhance awareness of SDGs, but would also instil employability skills, knowledge and attitudes that are necessary for creating a more sustainable future in students.

Additionally, tertiary institutions can use mentorship programmes in which they engage with experienced people who can teach, mentor and inspire students on entrepreneurial activities.

Such efforts, according to Thaanyane and Jita, have the potential to connect students with successful entrepreneurs and business leaders who can provide guidance, advice and networking opportunities. Similarly, higher education can partner with industry to create development opportunities for students.