Entrepreneurship Education Training

60% of Nigeria’s population are under 24years old and about 36% of them are unemployed because they lack the basic skills to get quality jobs. This poor economic state of the Nigerian youths has and will continue to be compounded due to the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic.  

Lekki Peninsula College which has provided quality low-cost education to over 2400 students has come up with an innovative Entrepreneurship Education Training program to provide training for unskilled and marginalized youths aged 18-25 years.

Youths, will be provided trainings in different areas of Information Technology. Furthermore, to help them commercialize the skills they get, we shall provide an intensive entrepreneurship training while also providing avenues for industry-based mentorship and linking them to access to micro-financing to start their ventures.

Starting with 200 trainees during the first year, we will scale up by directly training and mentoring about 15,200 entrepreneurs in the first 5 years.  

We are solving the challenge of Good Jobs and Inclusive Enterpreneurship in Nigeria. Over 60% of Nigeria’s population are under 24years old and about 36% of them are unemployed because they lack the basic skills to get quality jobs. This poor economic state of  the Nigerian youths has and will continue to be compounded due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. While globally, the labour force participation rate of young people (aged 15–24) has continued to decline the same cannot be said for Nigeria.Between 1999 and 2019, despite the global youth population increasing from 1 billion to 1.3 billion, the total number of young people engaged in the labour force decreased from 568 million to 497 million. In fact, the global youth unemployment rate is 13.6% (ILO,Global Employment Trends for Youths 2020).

Most of the unemployed Nigerian youths are not gainfully employed because they lack the requisite skills to be engaged in a productive venture. Furthermore, youth unemployment is compounded by the rigid curriculum of educational systems which focuses on academics while paying little attention to enterprise education. Amongst several other factors  this poses serious challenges to human capital production lines and the nation’s economic growth and development.

We are providing a low cost vocational training program. Specifically, the program will focus on developing the capabilities of the youths in focused areas of Information Technology like Coding, Web Development, Graphic Design, Animation/Multimedia Production, Digital Marketing, Transcription Services and Programing. In addition, our solution will promote the philosophy of self-reliance and create a new cultural and productive environment that promotes new sets of attitudes, cultural and educational shifts in the minds of the Nigerian youths.

We will train participants in skills and  entrepreneurship.  They will also be exposed  to learning through case studies and basic hands on activities in starting and operating business, sourcing micro-financing, bookkeeping and cost management.

Through a rigorous  curriculum and exposure, the participants will be endowed with the right skills and attitudes to start their own enterprises or gain employment as key members of productive teams.

The courses are structured into cohorts of a few participants to enable personal contacts with the facilitators and faculties. The technology is anchored on  big data for accurate determination of needs and impacts while Microsoft Power B1 and Python are the key IT platforms being used for data training under the Business Process Outsourcing  models.

This EET program is targeted at disadvantaged and at risk youths aged 18-25  who lack the required skills to get productive jobs or start an enterprise. In developing the solution, we conducted an extensive need analysis of the peculiar situation of the target group  as well as potential employers and financiers with specific actions to identify the key needs  of the group. The training is designed to solve the employment needs of all the participants  and encourage synergies

To ensure that the program gains traction on increasing employment and enterprises amongst the youths presently unemployed, we identified the following as other critical aspects of   our solution:

• Mentoring & Coaching 
• Internships
• Innovation driven assessments in the course of their training
• Micro financing
• Low cost program for affordability

With the skills gained from the IT trainings, participants will be ready for engagement in the new digital world, while the introduction to internship and mentoring  as well as micro-financing will help them to develop the entrepreneurship ability for starting and sustaining  their own enterprises or becoming employed by others.

The solution is enhancing the ability of marginalized populations access and create good jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities for themselves.

The target population for this solution are economically marginalized and at risk youths. Our solution provides them with needed skills and means to turn those skill into enterprises or gainful employment.  Thus:

1) Enabling  small and new businesses, especially in untapped communities, to prosper and create good jobs through access to capital, networks, and technology.

2) Equipping participants with technological and digital literacy as well as the durable skills needed to stay apace with the changing job market and economic downturns.

In Nigeria, there are public sector run technical and trade schools which neglect the entrepreneurial aspect of training and do not link trainees to sources of capital to launch their business. Most of the privately driven skill acquisition projects come at high cost, which makes it unaffordable for youths from low income families. Our program is innovative in the sense that it provides more impact at a lower cost than most of similar programs in the country. In designing this program, major innovative factors were taken into consideration to ensure that the program impacts on a large population of youths especially those from the low income bracket. Such innovations include:

• Mentoring & Coaching (Mentors are assigned to alumni of the program to guide them through business establishment phase and beyond.
•  Attachment of the participant to existing businesses as interns to gain hands on experiences on establishing and managing a business
• Innovation driven assessments in the course of their training e.g Business Plan/Proposal Competitions, Project design exhibitions
• The program will include training in ways of raising funds from Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and other SME focused Financial Institutions to enable quick start-up of their projects.
• Unique delivery system using different learning strategies including instructor-centred, individual learning, interactive and experiential technology.
• As it is a social venture maximum efforts are made to run it at a low cost model. This will enable involvement of more participants from the target segments (youths from low income families).  

Our innovative solution  makes use of a blend of IT platforms to provide skills acquisition and entrepreneurship training based on identified market needs. Some of the key platforms we deploy includes:

Microsoft Power BI which is focused on enabling organizations make well-informed business/operational decisions by quickly turning large amounts of disparate data created during the normal course of business operations into useful information.  

Python which is an interpreted high-level programming language and it allows you to run the code on multiple platforms. As a high-level programming language, allows you to focus on core functionality of the application by taking care of common programming tasks.

We also train in data analysis under a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) model to avail companies of their services while providing seed finance and incubation for participants who form groups of 3-6 to start independent data analysis businesses.

Our technical partner, The Workplace Centre (TWPC) has been using technology to help organizations create High-Performing processes through gaps identification, digital strategy development, and implementation of the right kind of technology. The solution is also used to bridge the skills gap between youths and work places as well to reduce unemployment particularly in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).  Other areas where the solution has been deployed successfully include:

1. AI/ML implementation using Wolfram in Collaboration with Wolfram Alpha LLC 

2. Database Administration Training in collaboration with Oracle Academy

3. Digital Strategy Training for Sterling Bank Nigeria

4. Training of 80 Lagos Internal Revenue Services Tax Officers in Data Analysis and Presentation with Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.

5. Employability and Entrepreneurship Skills Development Interventions for  1,000  National Youth Service Corp members in Ibadan and Lagos, Nigeria.

Our solution is based on the theory that if economically marginalized youths are trained in relevant IT skills and provided the means and know how to turn those skills into income generation, then they will be less vulnerable to trafficking, sexual and economic exploitation, they will also be less likely to embark on  unsafe migration and early marriages.

With this solution, we aim to change the unemployment rate among youths in Nigeria as a result of the fact that lots of youths do not possess skills to pick up gainful employment neither do they have the required skills and entrepreneurial acumen to set up their ventures. By providing them with this vocational skills and engaging them in entrepreneurial acquisition activities, they will be properly prepared to not only pick up gainful employment, but to set-up and successfully manage their own ventures.

Furthermore, we shall reduce the level of vulnerability of youths from low income background reduce unemployment and increase their ability to acquire relevant skills as the program is designed to be a low cost training model whereby, there will be efforts to encourage private bodies to bear the cost of training the youths.

We also want to  be a disruptive influence in the present direction of  the Nigerian vocational training sector by tying training to market needs, creating a crop of skilled youths are not just job seekers but job creators.

This solution is designed to have measurable outcomes.  Expected Outcomes include:

• At least 80% increased knowledge in the target areas of learnings and skills about running a successful business
• At least 80% of registered participants will be prepared and provided economic empowerment  for viable vocational engagements
• 100% of the participating youths will be empowered to adequately learn a skill which will empower them to be engaged in their immediate communities.
• The project will help thousands of trained youths to become income generating. It will also create jobs for thousands more who will be employed in the business created by our participants.

Our solution for this age range has not been launched yet. In year 1, 200 youths will be trained and empowered to start their own businesses while 800 persons minimum will be indirectly impacted and influenced by those who benefit directly from the project. Total impacted beneficiaries in first year are expected to be about 1000. This is expected to increase by the fifth year with 8,000 youths to be trained and empowered to start their businesses or get gainful employment. An additional 80,000 persons will be indirectly impacted and influenced by those who benefit directly from the project in the fifth year. In five years, a total of 15,200 direct beneficiaries and 150,800 indirect beneficiaries will be impacted by the program.

The program is set up to achieve the following goals in the next five years:

1.  in year 1, 200 youths would have been directly trained in various IT skills and provided mentorship and access to microfinancing.

2. Additional 150,800 youths would have received indirect benefits of training, mentorship, and employment from the program.

3. We expect to have created at least 150,000 new jobs in form of the youths creating their own enterprises or picking up employments through the impacts of the program

4. We expect that we should have through the advocacy and effects of the program reduced the vulnerability at risk youths and the attendants effects by at least 50%

5. We expect the program to influence the way vocational training is organised in Nigeria and West Africa to become more inclusive.

1. Difficulty in convincing unemployed youths to register and dedicate time needed for the training.

2. Fear that after learning skills, they might still be unemployed.

3. Getting unemployed youths to pay for training.

4. Difficulty in getting seed financing to implement the solution

5. Difficulty in scaling the solution along the planned timelines

1.Mitigation: We are starting at an area where we already have a reputation for providing quality affordable education with excellent results while maintaining strong collaborative links with women’s organizations, market, community and religious leaders where information about the  benefits of signing up for the programs will be spread.

2. Mitigation: participants will start interacting with microfinance and other finance organizations early in the training.

3. Mitigation: with the grant from MIT we will not need to charge the first batch of students. Success with them will ensure that others will be willing to pay the low cost that we will charge subsequent cohorts. It will also enhance our ability to get companies to pay us to train their staff on needed skills.

4. Seed fund for  first cohorts will be provided from the MIT Solve Challenge Grants. While the success of this cohort will ensure that microfinance companies, and community banks who would have been engaged from the onset of the solution will finance other cohorts. Also employers will be more willing to engage our participants and sned people to us for training after seeing the level of training of the first cohorts.

5. We have a well detailed plan to scale the program in the next five years and beyond along increasing the participants and cohorts.

Lekki Peninsula College is a social venture and not-for-profit with deliberate focus on providing low cost education to the mass number of young Nigerian population

Full Time Staff: 43

Part Time Staff: 8

Contractors/Consultants: 6

Lekki Peninsula College, (LPC) and  Lekki Peninsula Nursery And Primary School (LPNPS) with the support of Equality through Education Foundation (ETEF), a sister organization have over the years been able to retain the original vision of giving every student a chance in life through keeping fees low and the provision of scholarships and fee concessions for deserving students who still cannot afford the low fees. 

The organisation also works closely with The Workplace Centre Limited (TWPC) and The Workplace Initiatives (an NGO) who are renowned for using technology to help organisations create high-Performing processes through gaps identification, digital strategy development, and implementation of the right kind of technology. With the  support of ETEF , LPC has been running low cost and affordable education which includes various vocational programs like photography, videography, coding, bead making, cake baking, decorating and dress making during long vacations for students. Close to two thousand, four hundred students have benefited from our efforts.  We provide them with a blend of skill acquisition, enterprise and leadership training

Lekki Peninsula College (LPC): LPC  is the applying organization. It is a social venture, duly registered and licensed to run educational programs.   As program lead, it is in charge of designing and coordinating the solution,  faculty management and site management.

LPC is partnering with The Workplace Centre (TWPC), which uses technology to help organisations create High-Performing processes through gaps identification, digital strategy development, and implementation of the right kind of technology. TWPC will be working with us to develop the IT component of the training as well as providing the faculty and technical know how to execute it.

Equality Through Education Foundation (ETEF) is registered  as a not for profit, non government organization in Nigeria. ETEF believes that the keys to alleviating poverty are universal education, gender equality, and community building.  ETEF will help identify youths to be trained, help identify and liaise with other CSOs,  micro-finance and community banks.  

Empowerment and Action Research Centre (EMPARC) is a women-led, feminist research and advocacy CSO dedicated to social justice in Nigeria, EMPARC  will monitor and evaluate the solution.

Lekki Peninsula College (LPC), a social venture was registered as a limited liability company in 2013, it has been in operation since 1997. It  provides high-quality secondary education to low-income families at an affordable price. Lekki Peninsula Nursery and Primary school, its sister school was established in 2015 to provide primary and nursery education for children from low-income homes. Collectively, the schools are known as Lekki Peninsula Affordable Schools in the Lekki area. In addition to getting a quality education, starting in primary 3, all students are taught computer literacy and students in secondary classes are also trained in coding and robotics (using Raspberry Pi3). In addition, video production, photography, cake baking and decorating as well as bead making are taught during the long vacation. These skills are  being taught in the schools because we have found that our students, especially girls need to have entrepreneurial skills alongside basic education  order to support themselves and sometimes to augment their family income  very early in life.

Since inception, LPC has turned out 2,119 students. About 80 per cent of the graduates have gone on to pursue tertiary education and others are running their own trades, and serving as leaders in their communities. The school has over the years acquired necessary government approvals and is also fully approved for national and state external examinations such as WAEC SSCE, NECO JSCE, NECO SSCE, JSCE etc.

To meet our funding needs, we primarily derive our income from low fees and micro-franchising of our products. Currently, we franchise our early childhood education curriculum and model to women who wants to start their own Early Education Centres.

In instances where we need additional funds for capital projects, we seek for blended capital in form of debt and grants. To establish our primary section, we took a convertible note while we have also received a couple of grants to fund certain activities in the business.

At every stage, we ensure that we deploy responsible financing system allowing our revenue flow to cover every expense obligations including prices of any funding options.

It is our belief that we can solve the barrier of funding with the access to the Solve funds. This will enable us set up the training hubs, acquire the training technology platforms and organize and provide seed money for the first cohort of the solution.

Furthermore, the mentorship and strategic advice from Solve and MIT Networks will enable us gain traction in managing every market based barriers.

We will be collecting data as the solution progresses to be published and made available to other organizations, stakeholders and regulators involved in skill acquisition programs in Nigeria so as to improve the operations of the vocational training field.

Lastly, attendance and participation in Solve programs will grant us access to enrich our networks amongst peers, funders and other experts which will greatly help in scaling the solution along the planned timelines.

Our  goal is to foster partnership with any organisation that will help in setting up and scaling this innovative solution towards ensuring that it directly and indirectly impact on millions of vulnerable Nigerian youths who are presently lacking required skills to be gainfully engaged. This partnership in our opinion should be diverse support in financing.

Basically, our partnership agenda is focused on strengthening innovation by promoting social engagements and developing entrepreneurship in Nigeria especially within the education sector which is our immediate ecosystem

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Lekki Peninsula College is a woman led organization with the team lead and considerable number of 60%  Board members being women.Also, over 70% of the staff are women. Thus, this program is an advancement of a women led project.

Also, all our partners in this project including ETEF, TWPC and ENCARP are all women led organizations. Thus the impact of this program on women is further entrenched and scaled.

The program is structured that participation will be at a ratio of 60:40 with majority participants being females. Thus, it will help in training more women and increase women empowerment through gainful employment and reduce their exposure to risks of early marriages and sexual slavery as a result of being economically vulnerable.

Lekki Peninsula College has been involved in training of people including adults in skills to enable them engage in commercial activities that will support them in living a balanced life.

Our current solution is targeted at training people within age bracket of 18-25 to gain skills that will enable them pick jobs and create their own enterprises. Thus, we are committed to use the GM Prize to provide a low cost training solution for these set of vulnerable people who are mainly from the low income bracket of the society.