Sichinga urges colleges, varsities to design entrepreneurial courses

The national students’ leadership and business conference has opened in Lusaka with a call for higher learning institutions to inculcate a mind of entrepreneurship in students.

Gracing the first ever national students’ leadership and business conference, Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry Robert Sichinga observed that most of the learning institutions in the country only prepare students for white collar jobs.
Mr. Sichinga explained to the students that the formal sector cannot absorb all of the graduates hence the call for students to develop a mind of entrepreneurship.
He has since implored colleges and universities to tailor their programmes towards entrepreneurship.
He insisted that there were few jobs in the formal sector hence the need to encourage students to be entrepreneurs.
The minister said the conference has come at the right time when the country was looking for human resource to contribute to national development.
The conference is being held under the theme “maximizing your potential for career and entrepreneurial enhancement”.
And speaking earlier at the same conference, Zambia Centre for Accountancy Studies (ZCAS) Executive Director Alvert Ng’andu urged students to make use of the knowledge they will acquire during the proceedings of the conference.
Dr. Ng’andu said speakers of the conference have been drawn from various fields adding that students should tap into the speakers’ work experience.
And Zambia Institute of Marketing (ZIM) president David Kombe appealed to marketers to raise their standards.
He said currently, Zambia has got no good marketers that can compete at international level.
Mr. Kombe stressed that no marketer from Zambia can get a foreign job because the country lacks good marketers.