Kibabii University students are set to benefit from the second phase of the venture for change competitions from a leading pharmaceutical company.
Venture for change competitions are university students’ competitions that intend to foster social entrepreneurial solutions in the society.
The competitions were founded by a leading pharmaceutical company from Germany known as Boehringer Ingelheim Company.
The company is currently running these competitions in partnership with Kibabii University along with the University of Eldoret, Moi University and Non-Governmental Organizations.
The University participated in the first phase of the competition which focused on food safety that ended in March 2022.
As a follow-up and in preparation for the second phase of the competition, partners from Venture for Change programme visited Kibabii University on Thursday June 23, 2022 led by their director Ms. Hinke Rosekamp and were received by the Deputy Vice Chancellor Prof. Benedict M. Mutua.
Deputy Vice Chancellor (Planning, Partnership, Research and Innovation) Prof. Benedict M. Mutua told KNA that the competitions would help equip students with innovative skills that would build their competency in the practice of their careers.
“I am profoundly proud of this initiative because I strongly believe that our students will largely benefit in terms of the competence in relation to their careers,” said Prof. Mutua.
According to Prof. Mutua, the programme challenges university students to develop and implement innovative ideas to foster sustainable hygiene, food safety, waste management, and health in Kenya.
This will greatly reduce the rate of unemployment in the country since most of the youth who will participate in the competitions will have an opportunity to improve their lives using the innovative skills acquired from different departments of the economy.
“One who participates in these competitions has the highest opportunity to make the world a better place for him and his allies using the innovative skills regardless of whether he wins or loses in the competitions,” added Prof. Mutua.
On the other hand, Ms. Hinke Rosekamp, the Director for Venture for Change lauded the high number of students who are willing to participate in the competitions and challenged them to go beyond just winning the competitions.
“Our purpose is not only to get a winner. We are looking for ideas that shall add value to society. There is a need to interact with social entrepreneurs across the globe to ensure that your ideas are in tandem with the needs of the world today,” she said.
The second phase of the competitions officially launched on Wednesday 29 June will run between May and November this year.
The main theme of the second phase is “Innovative Waste Management for Development.” Students will participate in a workshop series of six modules that address a wide variety of social entrepreneurship concepts geared toward helping the students access problems, identify market opportunities, and transform ideas into compelling solutions.
Students who participated in the first phase of the competition expressed their satisfaction in the preparation and running of the competitions urging more students from the partnering universities to turn up and participate in the second phase.
These competitions are aimed at supporting the youth development programmes in the country and reduce the rates of crime caused by idle minds among the youth and lack of employment.
By Mwangi Oliver and Roseland Lumwamu
