Excitement as 2018 Stanbic National Schools Championship is launched

Kampala, Uganda | IAN KATUSIIME | Students are excited after Stanbic Bank launched the 2018 National Schools Championship in conjunction with the Ministry of Education and Sport on March 19. Running under the theme ‘Empowering the job creators of tomorrow’, the competition will seek to nurture entrepreneurship, creativity and long term business thinking.

Speaking at the launch event Patrick Mweheire, the Stanbic Bank Uganda CEO explained the genesis behind this year’s theme, “Uganda’s labor market cannot absorb the huge influx of graduates looking for jobs. 400,000 students graduate from university every year yet only 13,000 formal jobs are available.

This tells us we have a real and urgent problem that needs to be addressed by training the youth not only how to do a job but how to create one and if possible more for others.”

Mweheire added that this year the number of schools has been increased to 60 from 40 last year, and added that the target is to reach over 250,000 students. The Guest of Honor, Martin Osuban, Assistant Commissioner for Secondary Education, Ministry of Education and Sports said Youth unemployment is a serious problem on the African continent. “Uganda as a case study has one of the youngest and most rapidly growing populations in the world and preparing them to become productive members of society is a national priority for the government.”

6,000 students from 60 schools both government and private schools from across the country are expected to take part in this year’s competition, with 15 schools participating in each of the four regional heats. The competition will include a class room test, oral quiz, Essay competition, debate competition and a business skills challenge.

Talking about the increase in the participation numbers and major changes to the competition, Stanbic Bank’s CSI, Manager Barbara Kasekende explained, “As a result of last year’s success, the level of interest in this year’s Championships was extraordinary.

As a bank, we felt it would only be fair to not only increase the number places in the competition but to make it more exciting by adding new challenges, to that end. This year 15 schools will be given the opportunity to participate in the regionals compared to 10 last year. In addition in a major development we will be hosting business training boot camp for the finalists which will equip the students with business planning, marketing and the management skills they will need to succeed in the real world.”

The four schools that succeed in representing their regions will be tasked with developing business plan and executing it in their respective schools. The school that presents the best plan at the finals to be held in Kampala will be crowned 2018 Stanbic National Schools Champions.