Abstract:
Tertiary institutions exist to train manpower to solve local, national, and international
problems. Products from such institutions should not be a problem to countries as in the case
of some Sub-Saharan African countries including Ghana which has a high level of graduate
unemployment. Among the causes of the problem is the nature of teaching or the syllabus or
the programs students pursue while in such institutions. The paper discusses one of the
teaching strategies used to make a course relevant for a program and for the working world.
In this course, students are introduced to practice-oriented learning through simulation
exercises. The project activities specifically seek to assess the students’ understanding of
business formation; examine students’ understanding of sustainability, creativity and
innovation of business ideas; assess their understanding of the functional areas of business
including marketing & sales, finance, human resource management, operations, and
accounting, among others. Feedback from students who have participated indicates the
exercise gave much more exposure and meaning to the concepts they learned in class. In this
exercise, students build teams, develop a product, learn to set up a business, and design
organogram, business vision, mission, and core values. The exercise empowers students to
learn by doing. It accords students the opportunity to review their own knowledge and skills
with respect to the concepts they have learned in the course. More than 3000 students have
participated in this project since its inception in the academic year 2013/2014. It is estimated
that 1000 students will participate in this project in the academic year 2017/2018.
