Commissioned by the Drosos Foundation, Fumiyo Kagawa and David Selby have been undertaking the first two stages of a longitudinal evaluation of the INJAZ Al-Maghrib School-based Youth Entrepreneurship Program beginning in March 2014 with completion due in August 2015.
The program is aimed at inspiring and empowering low-income, disadvantaged middle school, high school and university students in the Moroccan cities of Agadir and Marrakech through partnerships that bring together a network of corporate sector organizations, public education policymakers and teachers. It focuses on skills building (critical thinking, problem-solving, program planning and implementation, positive risk taking, leadership) as well as building positive dispositions (self-esteem, self-confidence, sense of purpose, feeling of making a difference) in participants. Over the 45-month project period, the aim has been to offer INJAZ entrepreneurship training programs to some 3, 800 low income students and help students create some 120 junior enterprises out of which 12 real companies will mature.
The Sustainability Frontiers team has been involved in two rounds of evaluation: a baseline evaluation (May to November 2014); a mid-term evaluation (March to August 2015). The evaluations utilise a wide range of repeated and stage-specific evaluation tools including: a fact-finding questionnaire; worldview profiling exercises; self-esteem self-report inventories; leadership assessment tools; empowerment self-assessment inventories; focus group interviews with the project team, corporate partners, middle and high school and university educators and students at each level; student, teacher and business volunteer questionnaires on program satisfaction; SWOT analyses . Control groups of students are being investigated throughout.
Fumiyo conducted field-based research in October 2014 and in June/July 2015 in Agadir, Marrakech and Casablanca.
The 64-page final baseline evaluation report was submitted to the Drosos Foundation on 3 March 2015 and the mid-term evaluation will be completed by September 2015.
Founded in 2007, the INJAZ Al-Maghrib Association delivers programs on entrepreneurship, financial literacy and life skills in Morocco.
The School-based Youth Entrepreneurship Program is funded by the Drosos Foundation, Zurich, Switzerland.