The Student Training for Entrepreneurial Promotion – Sustainability (STEP-S) project has commenced the year by hosting the third Train-the-Trainer workshop at the University of Venda in South Africa. This 4-year collaborative initiative, running from 2024 to 2027, involves Godfrey Okoye University in Nigeria, the University of Venda in South Africa, Mount Kenya University in Kenya, and Leuphana University in Germany. Funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the project’s aim is to foster entrepreneurship among undergraduate, postgraduate, and secondary school students, addressing unemployment challenges through self-employment opportunities.
The project coordinators from Godfrey Okoye University, Mount Kenya University, and Leuphana University gathered at the University of Venda for a 5-day Train-the-Trainer workshop. During the workshop, 12 trainers (ToTs) were trained to become certified STEP-S trainers who will be tasked with the responsibility of training the postgraduate students on entrepreneurship.
The following milestones have been achieved by GOU in the project.
GOU STEP-S Milestones
- Certification of Christopher Uwakwe as the first STEP-S Master Trainer in West Africa in 2025.
- Training two staff in a PhD research workshop at Mount Kenya University in 2024.
- Training and empowering 45 student teachers from the faculty of education, GOU Secondary School, and the Institute of Caregiving in 2024.
- Provision of 5,000 Euro as students’ startup capital for their STEP-S businesses in 2024.
In addition, Godfrey Okoye University will host the second Train-the-Trainer workshop in July 2025, during which an additional 12 trainers will be trained who will then train over 600 undergraduate students on entrepreneurship. The partner universities have gotten the opportunity to learn best practices from each other as well as engage in South-South collaborations.