Rethinking Entrepreneurship Education in Uganda: Experiences and Perspectives of Young Entrepreneurs

Nowadays, access to education, although still not within reach for everyone, has become less of an issue than access to work after receiving an education, especially in low-income countries. Entrepreneurship is framed as a viable alternative. Often supported by development organisations, educational institutions add entrepreneurship courses to their curriculum, and young people are pushed to try their luck as entrepreneurs. The primary question this study seeks to answer is: what do the lived experiences of young entrepreneurs teach us about what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Between 2022 and 2024, the UNESCO chair on ‘Lifelong learning, youth and work’, hosted by Gulu University, organised three summer schools addressing issues related to youth entrepreneurship. Each time, around 50 people, mostly young, from all over the world participated. In groups organised around different themes, they conducted fieldwork in Gulu and its surrounding environment. Twenty-one fieldwork reports were collected, compiled, and analysed. Seven reports that provided reflections and recommendations without going into the experiences of the young entrepreneurs were put aside; the remaining fourteen reports provided meaningful insights into the challenges and opportunities faced by young entrepreneurs. These were thematically analysed based on three questions: What made the cases successful? What did that require from the young entrepreneurs? How can education support them? The three resulting themes make us reflect on the value of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education as a sustainable pathway to establishing a livelihood. Is entrepreneurship education a promising solution, or is it, rather, a disappointing quick fix? Quality entrepreneurship education presupposes a reflection on this question cognizant of socio-historical economic and political factors influencing and impacting entrepreneurship development.