School of Business & Management Studies

Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs) experience a high failure rate globally. Business failures are not limited to SMEs, however. The ever-increasing high rate of business failures in Botswana is a concern to stakeholders as formal employment opportunity is shrinking in all sectors. Particularly, unemployment among the youths is on the increase. Given these developments, there has been a call for an alternative to formal employment as a viable option. This is where the Certificate in Digital Entrepreneurship (CDE) programme come into Botswana Open University (BOU) offering consideration.

Furthermore, today’s youths live in a world different from that of their parents. Some refer to today’s economy as the digital economy. Therefore, the aim of our CDE programme is to provide opportunity for individuals to acquire the digital skills necessary to start, market, run, and grow technology-enabled businesses in today’s economy. “Digital Entrepreneurship (DE)” most commonly refers to the process of creating a new Internet-enabled/delivered business, product, or service. Digital technology is increasingly becoming business critical as it becomes more deeply embedded in the organization. The days of conducting “business-as-usual” are over. It is becoming clear that without new business models, enterprises cannot remain sustainable. Thus, BOU is answering the call for universities to play a role in embedding digital entrepreneurship education in their programme offerings to develop an entrepreneurial culture necessary to promote SMEs successes amongst people in the urban and rural areas across the country.

Finally, the CDE programme seeks to promote lifelong learning in an Open and Distance Learning educational environment. This programme provides opportunity to develop entrepreneurs such as business consultants in various public and private sectors, business reporters, small business advisors, sales managers, teachers and trainers of marketing courses, and all those businesses and individuals impacted by disruption of digital transformation.

The minimum completion time is one (1) year; Maximum 2 years.

• Certificate IV, NCQF level 4 (General Education)
• Candidates with Certificate (level 4) in a related field may be considered through Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in accordance with applicable policies.