Fostering agribusiness entrepreneurship for Kenyan youth through practice-based education

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Tuesday VI)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Addressing youth employment and unemployment: different approaches

Proposal

Youth unemployment situation remains a global challenge with the 15-24 years old who are not in the labor force in Sub-Saharan Africa being 50.5 per cent, where most countries continue to experience ‘youth bulge’ (ILO, 2018). In Kenya particularly, approximately one million youth enter the labor market each year, a number which the formal sector has been incapable of absorbing. As a result, youth unemployment and underemployment rates are high, with two-thirds of youth aged 15–24 not engaged in the labor force. The lack of formal wage opportunities pushes these young people into entrepreneurial activities; however, due to the theoretical focus of the current education system many secondary school leavers do not possess the practice-based skills to start their own businesses. Utilizing Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning theory, this article argues for practice-based entrepreneurship education by building partnerships between secondary schools, largely in rural areas, and agribusinesses to foster skills-building that will enable young people to start entrepreneurial activities in the agricultural sector. This would enable young people to effectively engage in productive and potentially economically viable agricultural activities as a means of livelihood. Agribusiness is identified as a crucial economic sector as it has greater youth employment potential compared to sectors such as manufacturing and some service industries (ILO, 2018). However, this can only be best achieved once the youth have attained reliable experiential skills from Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). This study uses a mixed-methods approach, utilizing surveys and 12 interviews gathered from key educational stakeholders and owners of agribusinesses in Kenya. The school interviews were used in examining the extent to which the formal business education curriculum instills students with effective entrepreneurial knowledge. In-depth interviews with owners of agribusinesses examined the current state of the agribusiness sector and the skill levels demonstrated by youth working in the sector in order to inform policy recommendations on how to create more employment opportunities for young people. Additionally, quantitative data were gathered using a survey methodology. A total of 1,324 students enrolled in 11 secondary schools in Kenya, completed a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire that was based on De Noble, Jung, and Ehrlich’s (1999) measure of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Evidence from the qualitative data supports the need for practice-based entrepreneurship education and training as it identifies that youth do not have the appropriate skills required for innovative entrepreneurial activities and value-addition whereby products are processed to increase their economic value in the competitive agricultural sector. Moreover, results from the regression analysis reveal that experiential entrepreneurship experience gained through helping in family businesses had the greatest effect on students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Thus, evidence from the data analyzed in this article suggests the need for business-led entrepreneurship development and curricula reforms whereby young people will not only be exposed to experiential entrepreneurship knowledge on identifying potential agribusiness opportunities but also on how to develop competitive businesses within the agriculture sector.

Author

• John Munyui Muchira, Florida State University