The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) on Tuesday commenced a 3-day capacity building entrepreneurship workshop for teachers in Edo.
Dr Dikko Radda, the Director-General (DG) of the agency, said that the SMEDAN school entrepreneurship programme was designed to advance the development and promotion of entrepreneurship and enterprise education in the country.
Radda also said that the programme was designed to build the capacity of the teachers who would in turn prepare their pupils and students to become entrepreneurs.
Represented by Mrs Linda Omubo-Pepple, the South-South Zonal Coordinator of SMEDAN, the DG said that there was now a paradigm shift in teaching and learning.
He said: “It is no more go to school, get good grades and get a good job. It is now go to school, get good grades and acquire skills of being your own boss.’’
He noted that there anxiety and uncertainty among students about their future because of lack job opportunities and entrepreneurial skills to go into business ventures.
Radda said this made the agency to initiate the “Mind Shift Entrepreneurship Programme’’ which according to him, was designed to engage students and youths to channel their energies to productive venture.
“The entrepreneurship teachers must be an entrepreneur as you cannot give what you don’t have.’’
The DG said that mind shift entrepreneurship programme had three components: training of teachers, exposure to selected business skills and post training and support.
