On our third day in Siavonga, the focus of the day was on the workshop program. I managed to get a good night’s sleep and was prepared for a busy day of lectures and activities. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any new photos on this day.
– After a quick recap of the previous day’s events, we split up into groups to discuss training methodologies in different countries.
– Guy de Fontgalland gave a presentation on the strategies for new venture creation for his organization, EDCL. I thought that this was one of the most informative sessions of the day because it really emphasized the core strategy that new programs need to have in place to succeed.
Guy de Fontgalland presents his workshop
– Two more current programs were presented that are currently operating in Africa: SIYB and CYCI. These programs were geared towards new entrepreneurs and also to help entrepreneurs who had existing small businesses. Each program had successes in several countries, but the biggest challenges were a lack of communication and no results/metrics beyond the initial deployment.
– Our second session featured a presentation on the definitions of young people and their rights and responsibilities. This was followed by a Fish Bowl exercise where I was asked to be one of the panelists. I think I did an okay job answering my questions – thankfully most of the difficult questions went to a Youth Worker who was sitting on our panel!
– After lunch, we had three more events: an activity on gender/sex considerations and roles, a seminar on working with young people with disabilities, and a short program on creating sustainable information and communication technology solutions.
– Follow that, we were officially introduced to GET Ahead for the first time. GET Ahead is a program that has been developed all around the world and has been successfully implemented in Africa. GET (Gender and Entrepreneurship Together) is an easy to deliver, activity-based training program that we are being exposed to throughout the week. In the afternoon, we took part in four GET Ahead exercise modules:
1) An activity that showed how the life cycles of businesses and people were both different and similar.
2) An activity that examined which 10 traits are most important for business success. In this activity, each group was given beads and strings to try to produce necklaces, earrings, and bracelets in a short period of time to demonstrate these traits.
3) The SMART strategy for setting goals. All goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound. This was demonstrated by an activity in which each of us was asked to write down a task that we could accomplish in two minutes. I wrote down that I could eat a mint, which I successfully accomplished.
4) Our last exercise of the day was a case study in which we heard a story about an entrepreneur. We were asked to identify the 10 traits of business success as they were demonstrated in the story.
After the session was finished I was completely exhausted and I went to bed at 7:30pm. I woke up again at 12:15pm to try to join a Top 20 Under 20 monthly conference call with Christine Magee, the President of Sleep Country Canada. Unfortunately, the internet connection kept dropping every five seconds, and as a result, I couldn’t join the conference call via Skype.
Click here for the photo album. Just two new workshop photos posted today, but there are also some great photos from previous days.