Erasmus+ Capacity Building projects develop higher education between EU Member States and third countries associated to the Erasmus+ Programme and more than 150 third countries not associated to the Programme. The projects of Capacity Building in Higher Education benefit higher education institutions and higher education systems in partner countries, supporting the relevance, quality, modernization and resilience of higher education, by reducing inequality and promoting inclusiveness in education. Our study is based on the qualitative data collected in the Erasmus+ Capacity Building project called “Developing Sustainable and Entrepreneurial Villages through Educational Living Labs in Namibia and Zambia” (SmartVille).

Based on focus group discussions conducted with four different communities in Namibia and in Zambia, our aim is to understand and identify the entrepreneurial needs and challenges of our Living Lab communities. The project establishes Living Labs in each of those four communities, which will offer technological infrastructure (facilities and internet-connections) and short courses of entrepreneurship education. Entrepreneurial learning contents for informal courses are developed based on the needs of the community members, with a special focus on empowering women and increasing the education among the most vulnerable groups in the rural communities.

Four focus group discussions were organized on September-October 2024 in Namibia and in Zambia to map out the entrepreneurial needs and challenges in the communities. Some of the entrepreneurial needs were linked to generic business skills, such as accounting, marketing and networking, whereas some of the business skills were linked to more specific business skills, such as agribusiness. In the focus group discussions, entrepreneurial challenges were also identified. Based on the focus group discussion data, project partners co-develop together with the community members following entrepreneurship courses in Zambia:
1) Business accounting course,
2) Business company identification and registration course,
3) Business networking course and
4) Sustainable Agri-preneurship course.

In Namibia, partners co-develop the agri-preneurship course and financial management literacy course that will be offered in two Namibian Living lab communities.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, education, focus group discussions, capacity building.