SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth

SDG 8

Decent Work and Economic Growth

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Whether Ashesi students join existing organizations or start their own, they act as job creators who carry forward entrepreneurial thinking in everything that they do. Ashesi maintains a goal for 20-25% of alumni to start their own business within ten years of graduating. Ashesi’s entrepreneurship ecosystem includes the following programs and initiatives:

The Foundations of Design and Entrepreneurship course prompts all first-year students to launch their own ventures to gain
real-world experience in business development.
The Social Entrepreneurship course guides students through the process of building a social enterprise.
The Entrepreneurship Capstone teaches final-year students how to start a scalable business.
Ashesi Startup Launchpad provides hand-on support and coaching to incubate student businesses.
Ashesi D:Lab trains students in design thinking so that they may create, innovate, and grow their ideas.
Ashesi Venture Incubator is a one-year alumni venture incubation experience in collaboration with MIT D-Lab, with funding from USAID. Fellows build their business through the incubator’s provision of business coaching from local and global business leaders, business development sessions, and support services.

Ashesi’s Commitment to Decent Work

In many African universities, students often sit in huge lecture classes. They take classes only within their major and often learn by rote. In contrast, Ashesi features a multidisciplinary and emerging transdisciplinary core curriculum designed to foster ethics and critical thinking, in addition to in-depth majors. Instead of traditional lecture-only classes, we offer a mix of small seminars, workshops, and hands-on learning through labs, community service, and senior capstone projects. Students tackle problems based on complex, real-world scenarios. Ashesi aspires to be as demanding as a high-quality university anywhere in the world, with a curriculum designed for an African context. At Ashesi, we believe that for young Africans to stand up to corruption and bureaucracy, they must ask questions. To be innovative and entrepreneurial, they must stop memorizing old answers and instead analyze problems in fresh ways to create new solutions. 16

0 %

Employment Rate Amongst Ashesi Graduates