Learning Entrepreneurship and Agriculture Practically (LEAP)

Title: 

Learning Entrepreneurship and Agriculture Practically (LEAP)

Location: 

Nationwide

Timing: 

2022-2026

Budget: 

€4,840,000

Donor: 

Belgium

Sector:

Lower secondary education, secondary technical and vocational education, and training (TVET)

Focus: 

Pre-service professional development of teachers and TVET instructors (PRESET); continuous professional development of teachers and school leaders (CPD); agricultural education and training; entrepreneurship education; gender and environmental sustainability.

Challenge: 

The agri-food sector is, and for the foreseeable future will continue to be, a fundamental pillar of the Ugandan economy. With 66 percent of working youth active in agriculture, the sector is also key to youth employment. Moreover, as the agri-food system changes, increasingly high-level skills will be in demand in up- and downstream segments of agricultural value chains. Young people need technical skills for modern, climate smart farming, post-harvest handling and processing, as well as entrepreneurship and digital skills for agriculture.

Quality, gender-responsive agricultural education and training play an important enabling role in motivating and skilling young men and women to pursue work in the agri-food sector. However, secondary education seems to steer Uganda’s youth away from agriculture. The chalk-and-talk teaching practices that continue to be commonly used are unsuccessful in terms of motivating and skilling learners and preparing them for changing demands in the economy. To change the tide, recent education sector plans and policy reforms seek to address weaknesses in the professional development system for teachers and school leaders.

Goal: 

O-level teachers and TVET instructors and school leaders deliver effective, gender-responsive agriculture and entrepreneurship education.

Partners: 

National:

• Ministry of Education and Sports – Teacher Education & Training Department, TVET Teacher Training, Research & Innovation Department 
• Uganda National Institute of Teacher Education

Training colleges:

• National Teacher Colleges (NTCs) of Mubende, Unyama and Kabale 
• National Instructors' College Abilonino (NICA)

Approach:

LEAP aims to improve the quality of agriculture and entrepreneurship teaching – and, hence, learning – in Uganda’s lower secondary (O-level) and secondary technical and vocational education and training (TVET) schools.

The programme is built around two strategic axes:

1. Improve the quality of teaching and learning by integrating innovative education solutions in the professional development system for TVET instructors and O-level agriculture and entrepreneurship teachers and school leaders:

• Contextualising, testing, and piloting three innovative teaching practices – career talks, project-based learning for agri-entrepreneurship and work-based learning – together with instructors, teachers, and training colleges.
• Forging three pathways for collaboration and alignment between training colleges, schools, and agri-food enterprises – role models, mentors, host enterprises.
• Integrating gender and sustainability in teaching practices and partnerships with the agri-food sector.

2. Ensure government uptake and sustainability by creating an enabling environment for scaling:

• Designing and piloting an effective, affordable model for blended continuous professional development of O-level teachers and school leaders.
• Generating evidence to improve and support the education solutions and strengthen professional development.
• Developing and rolling out an action plan for scaling together with government partners.

By the end of the programme:

• Newly qualified and in-service O-level teachers and TVET instructors who benefited from LEAP deliver effective, gender-responsive agriculture and entrepreneurship education
• NICA provides quality pre-service training that equips student-instructors with competences to deliver effective, gender-responsive agriculture and entrepreneurship education.
• NTCs Mubende and Unyama provide quality pre-service training that equips student-teachers with competences to deliver effective, gender-responsive agriculture and entrepreneurship education.
• NTC Kabale provides quality continuous professional development that equips in-service O-level teachers and school leaders with competences to deliver effective, gender-responsive agriculture and entrepreneurship education
• MoES has put in place enabling conditions to scale quality PRESET and CPD.