Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience |  University of Cape Coast

The Centre for Coastal Management- Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience (CCM-ACECoR) in partnership with the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprise Development (CESED) both from the University of Cape Coast, organized an Entrepreneurship Curriculum Needs Assessment on 26th May 2022, at the Erata Hotel in Accra.

The event saw in attendance representation from various media houses, stakeholders from CSOs and entrepreneurs working on coastal issues, and academics from various institutions, coming together to brainstorm on the needs of the entrepreneurship curriculum being developed jointly by the two Centres. Developing an Entrepreneurship curriculum is in a quest by CCM-ACECoR to develop the capacities of students and staff to be able to venture into entrepreneurship as a problem-solving tool.

Two groups were created for a breakout session. The first comprised of academics from the various institutions and the leadership of the partnering institutions (CCM-ACECoR and CESED) including the ACE Impact Project Manager, Dr. Sylvia Mkandawire; They discussed the shortcomings in University academic curriculum, when it comes to course structures and also how students approach these structures with regards to coastal and fisheries studies. They came up with lots of core problems ranging from lack of motivation, misplaced priorities on the side of students, mindset about fisheries, lack of adaptability to the existing curriculum on the side of students, while limited adaptation of innovation in teaching and research, difficulty in modifying key educational policies, resource availability on the side of the university system were raised and extensively discussed.

The second group was made up of entrepreneurs, CSOs, and representatives from CCM-ACECoR and CESED. This group highlighted issues on why entrepreneurs shy away from businesses related to coastal ecosystem and fisheries as well as what they would have wished to be taught as students venturing into entrepreneurship. Some of the problems that came up included the difficulty in acquiring canoes and outboard motors, the durability of canoes after the acquisition, lack of standardization in fish processing, high fuel cost, low fish catch, access to credit facilities, and inadequate fish catch. They emphatically stated that they would have wished to be paired with experienced mentors in their chosen fields of entrepreneurship, and have access to information and methods of various fishing models as well as the proper orientation of students into the fisheries sector.

The aims and objectives of the event had been successfully met, with CCM-ACECoR and CESED satisfied with the responses and hoping to successfully incorporate them into the curriculum being developed.