MONROVIA — About 100 professionals graduated from EduSTAD-Liberia's 10th cohort over the weekend. The training institute has made entrepreneurship compulsory in all 22 of its programs and says it has helped launch about 20 businesses in the past two years with nearly US$125,000 in startup grants.
Dale Gbotoe, head of the West African Examinations Council's Liberia office, told the graduates at the ceremony in Monrovia to look beyond salaried employment and start businesses that create jobs and address problems in their communities.
Gbotoe praised the STAD Institute of Entrepreneurship and Business Development, known as EduSTAD-Liberia, for what he described as a decade of equipping Liberians with professional and entrepreneurial skills. He urged the graduates to prove the value of their training through innovation, enterprise and service.
EduSTAD Chief Executive Officer Stephen Dorsue used the occasion to call for what he described as a national entrepreneurship revolution. He said Liberia's development problems cannot be solved by political leadership and foreign investment alone without equipping citizens with the practical skills to start and sustain businesses.
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"Today is a remarkable day in the life of this institution," Dorsue said. "It has been a decade of creating, failing, falling, repairing, dreaming, demanding, dedicating, perfecting, and today, you are completing it."
Dorsue said the institute's entrepreneurship and business development work has helped found about 20 businesses over two years, supported by nearly US$125,000 in startup grants for businesses incubated through the program.
"Participants who entered our programme with zero business knowledge have completed training with fully developed business concepts and operational plans," he said.
"At EduSTAD, we do not just teach skills; we teach people how to apply those skills in real time," he said.
Dorsue estimated that 78% to 80% of Liberians depend on self-employment or informal economic activity, while formal jobs remain scarce and highly competitive. He called on the government, development partners, schools, the media and the private sector to support entrepreneurship education across Liberia's school system, from elementary school through university.
"EduSTAD is leading the charge to make entrepreneurship compulsory because we believe it is one of the most sustainable paths toward economic empowerment and job creation," Dorsue said. "We are on an ambitious mission to shift training and empowerment dynamics from mere certification programmes to business development and job creation."
The Cohort 10 graduates completed three months of intensive training in data analysis, project management, monitoring and evaluation, office administration, customer service and relationship management, human resource management, business leadership, public speaking, and entrepreneurship and business development.
Dorsue said the institute plans to raise its training standards and deepen cooperation with regulators, including the Ministry of Education and the Accreditation and Institutional Training Board. He said it also plans to expand partnerships that connect graduates to jobs and business opportunities.
"Our goal is not simply to hand out certificates, but to ensure that graduates are empowered, connected, and equipped for success," he said.
He thanked the institute's partners, including the Liberia Revenue Authority, AGL, the Liberia Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Authority, the Youth Entrepreneurship Network, Orange Digital Center, Liberia UniPod, the Ministry of Education and Bloom Bank Africa Liberia Limited.
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Valedictorian Bendu Padmore spoke on the theme "Equipped to Serve" and urged her classmates to treat their qualifications as tools for service rather than personal advancement.
"The measure of our success will not be determined solely by the positions we hold, but by the lives we touch, the opportunities we create, and the positive impact we leave behind," she said.
Padmore praised Dorsue for founding the institute. "You identified an educational gap, created a solution through EduSTAD, and are producing efficient professionals who can contribute meaningfully to both the public and private sectors," she said.
"Education has equipped us, opportunity awaits us, but it is service that will define us in Liberia and the world at large," Padmore said.
