As part of the exciting Virtual Innovation Accelerator programme, the 8 EA competing student teams participated in 6 Master Classes that were facilitated by over 70 industry leaders & experts from across the world, who volunteered as Facilitators and Advisors.
Over the past three weeks, we were able to successfully host these masterclasses and we’re excited to report that our students were motivated, educated, empowered and energised by these sessions. The facilitators were able to pass on their knowledge and skills to these hungry minds in a way that left them looking forward to using what they had gained on their team business ventures!
We kick started this series of Masterclasses with the Basic Financial Management Masterclass which was led by Andrew Goldstein (Germany) and Antonio Potenza (UK). During this session, our students learnt the financial side of business and were able to improve their financial literacy for better project and funds management.
We went on to conduct the Cultural Context Masterclass which was facilitated by our student team leaders from the 8 participating teams. The purpose of the session was to allow advisors and facilitators to gain a better understanding of the local Zimbabwean culture so they can better understand the students and their projects.
The third Masterclass hosted was the Problem/ Ideation Validation session which was aimed at helping students to ensure that they are developing solutions for actually existing problems. The session was led by Florian Altman (Germany) and students got the chance to validate their problem statements and define their customer persona and journey map with guidance from the lead and co-facilitators.
The Roadmap Design masterclass gave our students the opportunity to lay out their projects’ entire process with assistance from experienced facilitators from around the world. “It was indeed a great experience for me as a learner,” said Peter Mupenzwa, a student from Hippo Valley High School. This session was led by Dr. Sybille Kuske (Austria), Jessica Espinoza (Germany) and Dr. Daisy Odunze (Zimbabwe).
During the last week of the masterclasses, we hosted the Solution Validation & Operating Models as well as the Marketing and Advertising Masterclasses, led by Nicolai Andersen (Germany) and the White Motion team; David Leo Michels (Germany) and Moritz Schner (Germany). These two sessions marked the end of this series of learning sessions for our student entrepreneurs.
For all the hosted masterclasses, our students learnt a lot and happily shared some feedback on their experience after each session!
“Today I got the chance to interact with Nicolai Andersen on the Solution Validation and Operating Models masterclass. What an amazing experience it was, connecting with experts from all over the globe. Thank you Emergination Africa, thank you Nicolai.” – Tafadzwa Manyanye, EA student team leader.
A big thank you to our Lead and Co – Facilitators, Volunteers, Teachers and everyone else who helped make these masterclasses a success!
We’re super excited for what’s coming next!
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