Author(s)

Aletta Tuyenikelao Shikukumwa¹, Alex Tubawene Kanyimba^2*, Rakel Kavena Shalyefu²

¹Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture, Windhoek, Namibia.
²Faculty of Education, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia.

The Adult Skills Development for Self-employment in the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture is a partnership venture between the Directorate of Adult Education and the First National Bank of Namibia, which provides a Credit Guarantee Scheme as the common element of contract between these institutions. The aim of this paper is to report on the participating entrepreneurs’ views regarding the effectiveness of the Adult Skills Development for Self-employment in the National Literacy Programme in the Khomas Education Region of Namibia. The results show that the project held some benefits for these entrepreneurs in terms of profits generated as well as enabling them to meet living expenses. The training enabled them to record income and calculate expenditure on rent, telephone, water and electricity bills, savings, loan payments, salaries and other cost-related issues. However, knowledge pertaining to how to write a business proposal and conduct market research was still lacking as these issues were not addressed during the training provided. The challenges hampering the effectiveness of the self-employment project are the existence of red-tape; poor communication between the Ministry of Education and First National Bank of Namibia; the long route taken to process loans; screening procedures and delays caused by the bank. The possible support measures proposed to improve the effectiveness of the Adult Skills Development for Self-employment relate to the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, Ministry of Gender and Child Welfare and the possible involvement of other financial institutions. The recommendations to improve the project’s effectiveness involve the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, the Directorate of Adult Education and First National Bank of Namibia. These entities need to revisit some of their strategies taking into account the views outlined in this paper.

Lifelong Education, Adult Learning, Community Education, Entrepreneurship, Employment

Shikukumwa, A. , Kanyimba, A. and Shalyefu, R. (2016) Entrepreneurs’ Views on the Effectiveness of the Adult Skills Development for Self-Employment in the National Literacy Programme of Namibia. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 4, 203-212. doi: 10.4236/jss.2016.46021.