Africa-Press – Angola. The Ministries of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation and Education are studying the best way to support and utilize young people with “brilliant” projects that can contribute to the country’s sustainable economic development.
The information was released yesterday by the Minister of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Paula de Oliveira, when speaking to the press at the closing of the Forum on Young People, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, an event that, over two days, served to share knowledge, exhibit work and present the impact of the Executive’s policies on young people.
“One of the ways for us to make better use of these young people is for the Ministry of Higher Education to work closely with the Ministry of Education, so that we can start, from now on, to outline a joint project”, he said, also looking at the policies within the scope of the National Development Plan (PDN 2023-2027).
The project, according to the minister, could allow these young people to, for example, enter the best universities in the world, join merit scholarships or have ways of obtaining financing to move from a startup to a company as such.
“Therefore, we have already had a preliminary approach with the Secretary of State for Education, and we will now begin to outline all of this so that brilliant ideas do not remain just on paper or in projects. We need to provide this support”, highlighted Paula de Oliveira, who gave a positive assessment of the Forum.
The Secretary of State for Secondary Education, Soraya de Jesus Kalongela, called, in her closing speech, on companies to invest more and more in training and development programs that enable young people to acquire new skills and knowledge, through the provision of curricular and professional internships, and thus contribute to stimulating innovation as well as favoring the development of startups.
Soraya de Jesus Kalongela said that the current state of entrepreneurship in Angola is still a challenge, pointing out that the Government continues to outline policies capable of responding to such challenges of the culture of entrepreneurship.
“In fact, it is precisely within this framework of actions that the Ministries of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation and Education decided, in a concerted manner, to hold this event, along with many others, in order to offer young people a field of vision capable of broadening their horizons for innovation and entrepreneurship, because we recognize that the future of Angola is in the hands of young people, especially young entrepreneurs”, he stressed.
Award-winning projects
In this 1st edition of the Forum, which took place from October 31st to November 1st, two honorable mentions and three prizes were awarded to the projects presented at the fair, evaluated by a jury committee created according to the criteria of innovation, relevance, sustainability and development.
The honorable mentions, with a single check worth 1 million kwanzas, were awarded, first, to the “Industrial Pollution and Control System” project of the Industrial Polytechnic Institute of Luanda (IPIL), and second, to the AngSoil project – Sustainable Soil Fertility Management, of the José Eduardo dos Santos University of Huambo.
As for the prizes, the first place, with a cheque for 3 million kwanzas, was awarded to the project “Tuassakidila, Solid Waste Collection System with Right to Benefits”, from the Industrial Polytechnic Institute of Luanda (IPIL).
This is a project developed by two young students, Jesuina Miranda, 18 years old, and Neusa, the same age, which aims to help in the collection and classification of solid waste for reuse.
The second classification was awarded to the project “Automatic Irrigation System” of the Instituto Médio Politécnico de Cachiungo, Huambo, with a check worth 2 million kwanzas.
The YetoLab project, from the Faculty of Engineering at Agostinho Neto University, Luanda, was ranked third, with a check for 1 million kwanzas.
Around 38 projects were registered at the Forum, 20 of which were from Secondary Education and 18 from Higher Education, from the provinces of Luanda, Bengo, Benguela, Cuanza-Sul, Malanje, Huíla, Namibe, Huambo.
For More News And Analysis About Angola Follow Africa-Press
