adminVictoria Ruzvidzo Business Focus
President Mugabe has incessantly put accent on the need for Zimbabwe to become a nation largely made up of employers and not employees as he seeks to take the country’s socio-economic well-being to the next level. This is an aspect that all educational systems and the corporate world should embrace if we are to deal decisively with challenges that have been with us for a long time. It is sad that university graduands, with masters degrees and all sorts of qualifications roam our streets today in search of “chero basa” and we simply take it as a sign of the times.
Deliberate efforts need to be in place to bring an overhaul to the entire education system so that we inculcate an entrepreneurial culture that will see Zimbabwe and its citizenry flourish.
Of course, this is not a short-term solution to the current challenges but will obviously be phenomenal in transforming lives and systems in a big way once it is applied effectively.
Family incomes, village economies and national and regional economies can be boosted in a significant way if we adopt the concept.
I know we have made fun of the Ministry of State for Liaising on Psychomotor Activities in Education, an attitude that has exposed our obvious lack of appreciation of the issues at hand that Government is trying to address.
That this country finds itself with thousands of degreed people roaming the streets instead of being economically engaged in projects that not only bring food and everything else to their table, but impacts on the country’s Gross Domestic Product is a fact that should nudge us into action.
That our children produce excellent academic results but have no clue about practical subjects or how to start and run a business is a handicap that should elicit a serious discourse instead of sarcastic jokes that fill our WhatsApp communication folders and Facebook accounts as we try to trash psychomotor activities.
I must admit that I initially did not understand what the ministry meant to achieve but with a bit of research and education from the President I quickly came round and had a deeper understanding of Government’s intentions here.
Somehow we are naturally inclined towards doing “zvinhu zvechirungu” which, due to colonisation, seem to be the right things to do. Indeed, the whites themselves deposit entrepreneurial culture in their kids at a very tender age.
Children run businesses or open bank accounts and are taught how to make money or save even before they get into primary school.
No wonder the teens and young adults of this race run successful enterprises.
It is how they are schooled. Research into most of their backgrounds will show that they do not encounter business terms or principles by accident or when they leave university but they grow up with the entrepreneurial culture already in them.
“Nhasi uno vana vanosvika Form Four vagoenda Form Six, vagoenda ku university vasingazive kuruka, kuveza mupini . . . practical subjects had lost attention in our curriculum,” quipped President Mugabe.
Powerful statement this. One that should get us thinking on the kind of graduate our education system has been churning out.
From this statement I could read that the President desires graduates to excel in their academic work but to also have an entrepreneurial mindset that should find space in the economy today.
Practical skills are the foundation for tomorrow’s big businesses.
Knitting, crotchery and carpentry can be taken further in this day and age and can result in the establishment of printing and weaving firms that employ hundreds of people or furniture-making conglomerates that can weave their way through to the international stage.
Pyschomotor activities help develop the mind using hands and you can imagine what else a practically-oriented mind can do for this country. A complete change in ethos where students are supposed to be educated purely for employment as opposed to being employers should be effected.
Admittedly, not everyone is cut out for this but the very attitude we inculcate in our children will have far-reaching and profound effects.
The future of any nation is in the young ones and posterity will judge us harshly for paying little regard to important values such as these.
It is in this regarded that I got so excited when I attended a Daring Damsel Mentorship Programme organised by the Professional Women Executives and Business Women Form and the Boost Fellowship Zimbabwe.
A line-up of mentors, including yours truly, told of stories of how they had risen the business ladder to high school students from Harare High School, Mufakose and Midlands State University.
Women such as Securico managing director Divine Ndhlukula, Standards Association of Zimbabwe director-general Eve Gadzikwa, prominent commercial lawyer and businesswoman Florence Ziumbe, businesswoman and consultant Adeline Sibanda, Codchem chief executive Marah Hativagone, among other prominent women.
Some students attending the seminar confessed that they never expected, even in their wildest of dreams, that one day they would be in the same room with such big names.
Stories by the mentors told of how perseverance pays and that a person’s background, no matter how challenging, should not determine their future, saw the young girls illuminating with hope.
The fact that one did not have shoes, a proper uniform or food as they went to school were facts that would in no way determine how their lives would be shaped.
It was refreshing, particularly for the girls, to hear that they could make it in life through mentorship and sheer determination and that there was still lots of space in the business world or their chosen career path for them to dream big.
One-one-down discussions with their respective mentors also helped build confidence and inculcate the entrepreneurial spirit.
Of course, this would not be a one-day job but a series of such meetings were bound to change mindsets.
Such programmes are critical for primary school, high school and tertiary students as they seek to navigate their way through to prosperity.
Sometimes the students need a bit of hand-holding to instil confidence in themselves and to help them achieve their potential.
Many girls and boys have abandoned their dreams because of one impediment or another and yet there is always light at the end of the tunnel if one is determined to achieve.
Mentorship is one strategy that can help create confident leaders of tomorrow.
“Every man has a right to determine their destiny,” said one singer. Are we doing enough to help guide this?
In God I Trust!
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