Milpark Education was recently announced as one of the seven African higher education institution’s to work with the UK’s University of Wolverhampton to spearhead a £1.3 million project to support the education of entrepreneurs in Africa. The innovative five-year project will be funded by the European Union. 

The University of Wolverhampton’s Centre for African Entrepreneurship and Leadership (CAEL) will lead the project that will focus on strengthening communities by enhancing awareness of self-employment opportunities. Milpark Education has been leading the call for entrepreneurship education with its Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Business Administration qualifications focusing on self-employment opportunities through entrepreneurship education.  

The seven African partners include Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), Makerere University (Uganda), Kyambogo University (Uganda), University of Ghana (Ghana), Milpark Education (South Africa), Ministry of Education Uganda and the Private Sector Foundation Uganda. 

Dr Joseph Sekhampu, Dean School of Commerce says: “Our participation, as the only South African higher education institution, is in recognition of our leading role in the area of entrepreneurship education development over the last few years. The partnership also allows us to adopt the challenges that currently face the local economy. The project will allow us to come up with innovative solutions and contribute towards a more entrepreneurial society.” 

Dr Sam Koma, head of department, Milpark School of Government and Public Management says the project partners “signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreeing to foster and hearten the development of student and staff academic exchange and embed entrepreneurship education delivery in the thematic fields of Business, Administration and Law.” The agreed partnership MoU, he continues, “represents an assurance and vow from the partners to promote sustainable development, ultimately contribute to poverty reduction through increasing the availability of educated and qualified high-level manpower in Africa.” 

Dr Koma says the five-year project that will kick off in 2018 “will involve academic exchange programmes to share ideas and expertise, guest lectures, research fellowships, hosting joint academic conferences, symposia and seminars based on entrepreneurship-related topics as well as social and economic development within communities across Eastern, Western and Southern African regions.”  

For more information on the Milpark School of Commerce and the project, visit: http://www.milpark.ac.za/school-of-commerce