Fighting youth unemployment through entrepreneurship education: A critical review of entrepreneurship education programmes in Sierra Leone

Recognising the important role of entrepreneurship education in reducing the high level of youth unemployment, specifically among graduates, nations across the world have developed initiatives that will help towards this direction. For instance in Sierra Leone, the government formed a dedicated Ministry of Youth Affairs that will help boost and co-ordinate opportunities for education and the creation of enterprises among youths (UNDP, 2013). Consequently, there has been a rise in the number of provisions of entrepreneurship education programmes across the country. However, little is known about the current status of programmes targeting graduate youths in particular. This paper reviews the current situation of entrepreneurship education programmes in Sierra Leone and recommends ways to effectively improve the situation. The analysis was conducted by selecting a sample of programmes offered at fifteen institutions that target one group: Entrepreneurship Education Programmes for Higher Education Students (EEPHES).Owing to the dearth of literature, phone interviews were conducted to get information on the programmes context, participants, characteristics and outcomes. The results show that the provision of entrepreneurship education by higher education institutions is still at early stages.