Beating the odds. Lessons from a (very) rural school in South Africa

#EducationPerspectives

A few days ago I received an email - pretty much out of the blue - from a Mr Langelihle Khanyile asking if they - a small college in one of South Africa's most rural areas - could have permission to use our ever growing collection of online entrepreneurship courses to teach their matriculants different skills that will make them a more employable.

To clarify: I am a great believer that a good entrepreneurial education means that people enter the job market with a much better understanding of the different parts of a business, a roll-up-your-sleeves attitude and overall climb the assigned responsabilities ladder much faster. Which is why I tell young people to go and work in a small business or shadow an entrepreneur to get a realistic undestanding of what the world of business is like before trying to find a classical job.

Going back to what happened...

Following a series of internal meetings, proposal appraisal committes, board sessions and intensive discussions, the request was approved 3.9 seconds after receiving their email :-)

I have no idea if this initiative will work.

But I wanted to share with you how blown away by the proactiveness of the educational team at this small college in one of the most rural areas of South Africa, a college that was founded by Bulungula Incubator Incubator.

I am enormously excited at the prospect raised by Mr Khanyile and this is how it will possibly pan out:

1. Teachers/Facilitators show a lesson to the class (in class) and the class then discusses it or works together on the takeaways or answers thus helping people see different aspects of a topic. One of criticisms of our offering is that it is very much static one way process: you open the course and do it. We tried to design the lessons so they are actionable immediately, but it is still statis. By incorporating a healthy debate you can improve on the understanding of the subject as well as seeing how there are many different approaches.
2. The micro-courses are used to help the students get exposure to practical aspects of starting and growing a business that they might adapt to their own circumstances, do a short project etc. This is important because entrepreneurship is truly best learned by doing and not reading. Whether they then actually start a business or not is neither here nor there: it is the practical education of understanding what they can do on practical level to start (a business, a project, an initiative, etc).
3. The academy itself will also be used to support people in the wider community, starting with free access to all the courses to anyone. That's not to say that an online course will solve everyone's problems! Absolutely not. But - as we discovered in a recent survey of 5.000 of our students - sometime all a person needs is a helpful nudge to get them unstuc
4. Students (of all ages) will design - by hand or computer - posters that capture the spirit of the community and those will be placed around the community. I didn't mention it to them but we might use those posters - if the children give their permission of course - around the world, with of course credits on each poster :-).

And who knows what else will come out.

Why are we doing this?

Anyone who knows me knows I turn down an enormous amount of opportunities for our The StartUp Tribe that aren't very specifically fitting in our strategy. That's because the more moving parts a project has the more administratively intensive a project gets and eats into your time and energy resources (even if it doesn't cost money). This applies to how I invest also my personal brand time... In the last 2 years I have literally turned down 99% of all invitations to do workshops, seminars, webinars, panel discussions, etc. I dont even recall the last time I attended an event. Focus - at least for me - allows me to stay lean so that I can move quickly in the direction I'm going (between you and me, saying no to things comes REALLY hard for me! I am perennially curious!).

But if we don't try we won't know...

We are doing this in part because the college is just awesome, but also because we've been thinking for a long time how to use our content in more original ways (for example, did you know our courses are being right now loaded to a regional TV station for late night airing? If you are a TV station feel free to reach out - there is no cost to this!). An online course - as nice as it may be - is only so effective. Couple it with the energy and guidance of a facilitator/teacher, a robust debate in class/workshop and some pratical tasks and you really have the foundations of an amazing education. Our hope is that this collaboration is the start of our content being used across schools all over the world. At no cost to the schools.

But we are doing this with a proactive willing partner. And this is a hugely important point for anyone out there working with other organisations on a project: if your partners don't roll up their sleeves don't bother starting or continuing the project. We saw it also with many cities with whom we operate (as a reminder, we run the online entrepreneurship academy of 421 cities and organisations): many cities are excited at the partnership but then drop the ball after a while which just means admin on our side and no further traction in the city (since 3 weeks we have started literally messaging non performing cities and if within a week there is no reply we just shut off the academy).

But here's what we are doing which is REALLY hard...

We are NOT dictating how this project should be done. We are literally letting them take the lead and tell us what works, what doesn't, what's missing and whatever other lesson comes out of it. They might even come up with a whole new way to use our material or teach entrepreneurship. Listening is hard. It is even harder when you're a little dinosaur like me that's been around the block and has a good feeling for what works and doesn't. But just because I have a good foundation of knowledge I have to be ultra careful that i don't live in the past. Most modern support programs for entrepreneurs are based on out of date methodologies (if you want to really understand what works one of the best professors out there in entrepreneurship is Prof Greg Fisher - follow him).

The lessons for other organisations looking to experiment...

1. Define what areas you are less strong in or struggling to come up with new ways of addressing market needs.
2. Find a partner that is keen to experiment on this. Usually smaller is better as most mid to large organisations are too slow and bureaucratic (not as a cricitism - the dynamics of managing a large brand are just more complex).
3. They might be kene to experiment but YOU need to also ALLOW that partner to experiment, try things, screw up etc. Don't do limit them or what you are doing isn't looking for a partner but actually a distributor :-)
4. Dedicate 30 mins per week for honest feedback chats. Not to tell them anything but rather to listen to their experiences on the ground.

A little about this college... and why it is so special.

Understand that we are not speaking about a place surrounded by great infrastructure, employment opportunities etc.

And here's a link to google maps if you're curious exactly where they are...

Yet this modest college turned what rural education is on its head. Last year - a first in the whole region - the college had a 100% matric pass rate (for my international friends - in SA this is amazing as too many schools are failing their students). It has some incredible people working there who are not on linkedin, but also involvement of some who are, such as Rejane Woodroffe, CFA and many others.

You can find out more about them at https://www.bulungulacollege.org/

BUT the pics and links are nice... but the real magic of what they signalled by reaching out is...

They aren't just a school. They decided to take seriously their responsibility to prepare their youth for a modern real world. Teaching entrepreneurship is about helping shape attitudes, character and understanding how to spot opportunities and action on those opportunities.

You can stop reading here. The next words are for the students...

This is not about the teachers, the schools or any of the adults out there. This is a project to you, the absolutely amazing young people studying there! I thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing our little thing we have created and worked on to be part of your life. I so hope you will enjoy it, learn from it and tell us how to improve it so it absolutely rocks!

Here's to you my dear young friends! Because...

Education + Attitude = Opportunities