Entrepreneurial Education in Burkina Faso: A Development Research Collaboration by KoEF

In February 2023, FH JOANNEUM and the Burkina Institute of Technology (BIT) successfully completed a project funded as part of the Cooperation Development Research programme.

The Institute for International Management and Entrepreneurship at FH JOANNEUM has been in partnership with BIT, a university in Koudougou in Burkina Faso, since 2020, which is characterized by technical courses with a strong focus on entrepreneurship.

The funded project aims to strengthen the entrepreneurial skills of teachers in Burkina Faso in order to make a contribution to the country’s economic development. As part of this project, teachers from Burkina Faso conducted two study visits to Graz in 2021 and 2022. You were able to exchange good practices on entrepreneurship education with lecturers from FH JOANNEUM, you could get to know the start-up ecosystem in Graz and further develop your own teaching in Burkina Faso through the impressions gained.

The highlight of the project was a joint conference in Koudougou on 22/23. February 2023. Numerous entrepreneurs from Burkina Faso came together with lecturers from BIT and FH JOANNEUM to discuss strategies and successful models for cooperation between educational institutions and start-ups and to share ideas for promoting student employability and strengthening the start -Generate up ecosystem in Burkina Faso. Workshops with BIT students on design thinking and entrepreneurship for engineers rounded off the conference.

Arnaud Valea is Head of Department of the Electrical Engineering course at the BIT. He sums up his impressions after two visits to FH JOANNEUM as follows: “These two study visits gave us an insight into entrepreneurship education in Graz. We learned how to conduct a workshop on entrepreneurship, how to identify the different skills needed for a given entrepreneurial field or topic.”

Doris Kiendl and Bojan Jovanovski from the Institute for International Management and Entrepreneurship at FH JOANNEUM managed this project and sum up as follows: “The implementation of the project, which was approved in 2020, was initially very difficult due to COVID. Instead of some planned mobilities, we had to carry out our activities purely online. Ultimately, however, it all worked out very well, and we learned a lot ourselves through working with our colleagues from Burkina Faso and mutually benefited from the professional and cultural exchange. The students and teachers at the BIT are inquisitive and have a lot of energy. In any case, we will continue the exchange with the FOITT.“