Institute military training in SHSs to inculcate values — Prof. Boohene

A professor of Enterprise Development at the University of Cape Coast, Rosemond Boohene, has called for the institution of military training for senior high school students to inculcate values of patriotism, ethics, discipline personal development and leadership.

She stated that such values were critical in succeeding at every entrepreneurship training at senior high school towards building youthful entrepreneurs.

The professor, who is also the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the university, was delivering her inaugural lecture in Cape Coast on Thursday on the theme, "Entrepreneurship and enterprise development in practice: tracking the pathways”.

The lecture was attended by academia, traditional authorities and students. Explaining suggestions to promote more conscious efforts to build entrepreneurial culture among the youth as a critical strategy towards reducing youth unemployment Prof.

Boohene said the military training would be part of a two-stage model programme aimed at building more entrepreneurial youth.

The first stage of the model targeted at the SHS students should include agriculture training, leadership training, digital literacy and entrepreneurship training.

She said the second stage of the model for tertiary education students would be entrepreneurship training which would allow interested students to crowdfund to help them fund business ideas.

Successful entrepreneurship

Prof. Boohene said the two-stage model would build the interest, discipline and ethics needed for successful entrepreneurship among the youth and reduce over dependence on government salaried jobs.

She also called for education about, for and through entrepreneurship aimed at building awareness, strength and resources, and capabilities to encourage the youth to start their business.

Unemployment, national security

Prof. Boohene stressed that unemployment remained a national security issue which required consistent conscious efforts toward building youthful entrepreneurs. She stated that the lack of access to financial resources and high interest rate on available funds for young entrepreneurs were disincentive to startups. She also expressed  concern about the cumbersome regulatory practices which impacted negatively on small businesses.

She said the yearly renewal of business registration with required details from an auditor was a disincentive for small and medium businesses, calling for entrepreneurial universities with mindsets which would support research in entrepreneurial development through research, theories and practices.

Profile

Prof. Boohene is a scholar, educator and researcher in entrepreneurship and small enterprise development with over 27 years of experience in high education.

Her research interests include gender and entrepreneurship development, entrepreneurship and new venture creation, small enterprises development and business incubation. She has published extensively in her area of study and has been robed and accepted into the college of professors.