Africa-Press – Botswana. University of Botswana Foundation (UBF) scholarship recipients have been urged to use the diversity of skills gained from their research projects to form consortia of businesses and employ themselves.
Speaking at the scholarship awards ceremony on Thursday, UBF chairperson, Mr Satar Dada encouraged students to use their education to diversify the economy of the country.
“Use the different social safety schemes to access funding that could lead to self-sufficiency and grow the economy,” Mr Dada said.
He reminded recipients that their skills were their greatest resource, which could unlock their future and thus implored them to use the opportunity to improve their lives and those of their fellow citizens.
He said government was concerned about the growing unemployment rate and was doing the utmost to come up with employment creation schemes.
In his welcome remarks, UB Vice Chancellor, Prof David Norris said there was need for students to research and innovate to help the university drive the economy of this country as expected. He said the major commodity of any country is its knowledge base, adding that UB was thus keen to increase cohorts of PhDs and Masters programmes, targeting 30 per cent.
A recipient, Ms Onneile Motlhaapula, expressed gratitude for the investment, adding, “I feel empowered by this scholarship and vow to graduate as an innovator”.
Ms Motlhaapula received a scholarship to study for MSc Environmental Science studies.
“This recognition is not only a validation, but a transformative power of education,” Ms Pretty Tsokedi, who is pursuing her MSc Art Economics, said. She said the scholarships had given them an opportunity to emerge as fully fledged graduates at the end of their programmes.
The UBF has, since 2002, been sponsoring students to pursue their senior degrees. On Thursday, 23 students received the scholarships with two of them from Northern Trust. The scholarships cover various disciplines such as science, health, education and engineering, among others.
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