Accelerating Sustainable Development through Flexible Learning: Re-Orienting Entrepreneurship Education

Abstract

One approach to enhancing entrepreneurial activity and enterprise growth in developing countries is to create an ‘enterprise culture’. To achieve a widespread enterprise culture in the long run, education and training programs in Kenya and in other developing countries need to integrate business, technology and entrepreneurship for self employment into the curriculum. Also, given the widely accepted notion that entrepreneurial ventures are the key to innovation, productivity, and effective competition; the question of whether entrepreneurship can be taught is obsolete. The teaming mass of unemployed youths in the country and the global economic crisis has increased the urgency for countries to identify new sources of growth and develop a sustainable path to economic success. This urgent need for re-orientation calls for a revolution in the system of education that we run as a nation. This study used extant literature reviews and actual observations. Data was collected from academic papers, reports, the media as well as personal education and experience in the field. Data was analyzed in a systematically come about entrepreneurship education and training and then examined the flexible learning and teaching approaches giving recommendations on policy priorities. The paper argues that flexible and open learning is the perspective the entrepreneurship educators should adopt to not only leverage on accessible, flexible and student-fit content and learning, but also life-long availability of content for nascent and practicing entrepreneurs to learn and relearn relevant skills for creation, management, growth and innovation of competitive business ventures. Along with this, it recommends a strategic model and strong government commitment to information and communication technology (ICT) as one of several critical elements needed to accelerate entrepreneurship. We also address both benefits and challenges to anticipate when using flexible learning in entrepreneurship education and training. // Paper ID 184