WISDOM OF STEVE JOBS FOR TANZANIAN YOUTH
- What can young people of Tanzania learn from the entrepreneurial and business career of Apple co – founder, the late Steve Jobs? How can they use those lessons to advance their own businesses and careers? Which entrepreneurs and business leaders offer insights similar to those epitomized by the late Steve Jobs? These are some of the questions every Tanzanian young man and the public at large as the readers of the books written about his personal profile and life should find answers to when it comes to study and learn lessons from Steve Jobs.
WHY YOUNG PEOPLE OF TANZANIA NEED TO HAND OVER THE KEYS TO SUCCESS?
- The total population of Tanzania is about 61 million. 43% of the total population is youth, and 68 percent of the active labor force is young people. Youth in Tanzania is defined as a person between the ages of 15 – 35 years. The core problem facing youth in Tanzania is unemployment. This problem is characterized by a lack of job opportunities in urban areas and underutilization of the majority of the national labor force in rural. Youth from primary, secondary, and high learning institutions entering the labor force annually is about 1,000,000 but only 100,000 get employment into the formal sector. The incidence of unemployment among the youth is relatively high. The youth constitute 60% of all people who are unemployed.
Rural youth grow up in a culture that does not typically support entrepreneurship.
- They (Rural youth) often seek employment by migrating to nearby cities and towns. When they could not find jobs in town they engaged in dangerous behaviors such as petty theft, armed robbery, drug abuse, and unsafe sex, which cause other social problems like the spread of HIV / AIDS among youth, family crises, mental disease, and deaths. The number of primary school leavers is big and has not been followed by a corresponding expansion of secondary education. Very few have been absorbed in secondary school (about 10 percent). The majority of youths lack skills and business training. At the time youths complete primary or secondary school education they do not have adequate skills that they can use to start – self–employment activities.
- There are few secondary schools and high learning institutions that have business and commercial courses including entrepreneurship knowledge and skills for students but the weakness is however that they emphasize theoretical courses. Inadequate credit, facilities have shown to be a big constraint and challenge facing young people. Many youths have started self–employment opportunities but lack start–up capital. Financial institutions usually have difficult conditions, which are almost impossible to be met youths.
- Udzungwa Mountains College Student Club of Entrepreneurship (UMCSCE. ORG) has been preparing young people for life after school or college by realizing their awareness of economic and social issues, teaching them entrepreneurial and life skills, providing the young people of Tanzania with an understanding of the business world and enhancing their sense of personal responsibility through practical business experience. Every year, Udzungwa Mountains College Students Club of Entrepreneurship (UMCSCE) organizes an official policy which is called the “Students Entrepreneurship Empowerment (SEE)” program which is always supported by the College Students Entrepreneurship Fund (CSEF). The major aim of (CSEF) is to focus on financing and empowering small start–up funding for college students who are entrepreneurs (Those college students who own and operate a business while attending college) and other small businesses and start–ups – for small entrepreneurs, new and well–established entrepreneurs who already had some success under their belts with small business and just need help in taking it to the next level. The future of Tanzania depends upon making every individual, young and old, fully realize the obligations and responsibilities belonging to citizenship. The future of each individual rests in the individual, providing each is given a fair and proper education and training in the useful things of life. It should be understood that habits of life are formed in the youth period. What we need in Tanzania now is to teach the growing generations to realize that thrift and economy, coupled with industry, are necessary now as they were in past generations. Teaching youth Tanzania’s economic way of life and showing them the benefit of hard work would give them a self – reliance and independence as the founding father of Tanzania, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere said. This should be believed, would have a positive impact on their future and even help safeguard Tanzanian democracy. Let their success be our inspiration.
