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[Translate to English:] © Christian Teichmann ​/​ sfs

SmartVille – Developing Sustainable and Entrepreneurial Villages through Educational Living Labs in Namibia and Zambia

01/01/2024 - 12/31/2025

Research area Work, Organisation, Gender | Christine Best | Research area Innovation and education in the digital society | Ann Christin Schulz | Research area Labour policy and health | Kerstin Guhlemann

The SmartVille project focusses on strengthening rural areas in Namibia and Zambia. By developing entrepreneurship training courses and establishing Living Labs in an interdisciplinary network with universities from Finland, Namibia, Zambia and Germany over a period of two years, formal and informal educational opportunities in these regions will be expanded.

Erasmus+ (Capacity building in the field of higher education)

SmartVille reforms and develops new innovative approaches to formal and informal educational opportunities in order to strengthen disadvantaged groups in terms of their employability and problem-solving skills. To this end, the project is setting up so-called "living labs" in rural regions in Zambia and Namibia via the local universities, which will essentially serve as an innovative learning environment. The European partners use innovative teaching and learning methods to promote generic and specific entrepreneurial skills. In addition, access to education is primarily offered and facilitated for disadvantaged groups. SmartVille therefore contributes to the capacity building of African universities by introducing innovative and collaborative teaching and learning methods, while also promoting digital inclusion and helping to eliminate regional educational inequalities.

As part of this project, sfs will make a significant contribution to integrating the perspectives of digital inclusion, gender-specific aspects and the dissemination of social innovations. It will also play a key role in the development of the entrepreneurship training programmes.

African partners:

  1. University of Namibia (UNAM) – Namibia: http://www.unam.edu.na/
  2. Mulungushi University (MU) – Sambia: https://www.mu.ac.zm/
  3. University of Lusaka (UNILUS) – Sambia: https://www.unilus.ac.zm/
  4. Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) – Namibia: https://www.nust.na/

 

European partners:

  1. LAB University of Applied Sciences – Finnland: https://lab.fi/en
  2. LUT University – Finnland: https://www.lut.fi/en
  3. TU Dortmund University (TUDO) – Deutschland
  4. University of Turku (UTU) – Finnland: https://www.utu.fi/en

In terms of methodology, the project builds on preliminary work from other European projects. Moreover, the adaptation and transfer to infrastructural and cultural conditions in the African partner countries is being worked on in a participatory manner in an international network. The sfs topics are as follows:

  • Living Lab as a place of learning
  • Co-design as a participatory approach
  • Entrepreneurship training courses
  • Gender-specific educational opportunities through digitalisation
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