University students set to reap big from Venture for Change Competitions

By Achola  Bulimo  Mathews

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 whose intention is to foster social entrepreneurial solutions in the society were founded by Boehringer Ingelheim Company, a leading pharmaceutical company from Germany. The company is currently running these competitions in partnership with Kibabii University along with the University of Eldoret, Moi University and select Non-Governmental Organizations.

Kibabii University participated in the first phase of the competition that focused on food safety which ended in March 2022. As a follow-up and in preparation for the 2nd Phase of the competition, partners from Venture for Change programme visited the University recently led by their director Ms. Hinke Rosekamp and welcomed by the Deputy Vice Chancellor Prof. Benedict M. Mutua.

Speaking with the  Education  News Team after the launch of the second phase of the competitions, the Deputy Vice Chancellor [Planning, Partnership, Research and Innovation} Prof. Benedict M. Mutua said the competitions will help equip students with innovative skills that will build their competency in the practice of their careers.

The main theme of the second phase is “Innovative Waste Management for Development.”

Students will participate in a workshop series of 6 six modules that address a wide variety of social entrepreneurship concepts geared toward helping the student access problems, identify market opportunities and transform ideas into compelling solutions.

“I am profoundly proud of this initiative because I strongly believe that our students will largely benefit in terms of competence in relation to their careers,” said Prof. Mutua.

According to Prof. Mutua, the program challenges university students to develop and implement innovative ideas to foster sustainable hygiene, food safety, waste management and health in the country.

This will highly 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.

“Anyone who participates in these competitions has a great advantage to make the world a better place for them and their allies using the acquired innovative skills regardless of whether they win or lose in the competitions,” added Prof. Mutua.

On the other hand, Ms. Hinke Rosekamp lauded the high rate of students who were willing to participate in the competitions and challenged them to go beyond just winning the competitions.

“Our purpose is to not only to get a winner. We are looking for ideas that shall add value to the 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 currently,” she said.

The second phase of the competitions are set to run between May and November this year.

Students who participated in the first phase of the competitions expressed their satisfaction in the preparation and running of the competitions urging more students from partnering universities to turn up and participate in the second phase.

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