Introduction

Tanzania, like many other low-income countries, has a young population, with 70% below the age of 30 years [1]. Because of high rates of unemployment and underemployment, the full potential of young people’s contribution to the country’s economic and social development is not utilized. The national economy is not creating enough jobs to absorb its rapidly growing cohort of young people leading to young adults in Dar es Salaam (DSM) with few employment opportunities. The available occupations for uneducated male young adults, such as day labor, are insecure; formal employment, such as work as a guard or cleaner, often pays less than minimum wage; some occupations, including work in small-scale fisheries and in forestry, are no longer economically viable [2]. As a result, the informal sector has become an important source of employment for young adults. Helgesson [3] found that in Tanzania many of the youth migrating to towns have subsistence farming as a complementary livelihood strategy, alongside self-employment in micro-business. However, the support system for self-employment is still very limited, especially for those without the relevant skills. Farming in young people’s home villages, where their natal families reside, remains an employment possibility. However, it is seen by many young people in Tanzania today as subsistence work, not as something that can add value to their lives [4]. This is true of many youths who have immigrated to urban areas. The Tanzanian Development Vision 2025, an outline for economic and social development drawn up by the national government, requires the citizens to take an entrepreneurial approach toward meeting its development challenges, starting with a change of mind-set. For example, schools and institutions should not be educating job seekers; they should educate people with the mind-set of being job creators and promoters [5].

In Tanzania, the problem of unemployment can be reduced if youth engage in entrepreneurship practices as a means of creating employment which in turn will lessen the problem of crime [6]. However, lack of knowledge and skills about how to start and maintain an entrepreneurial enterprise is a problem among young adults. It is reported that educating young adults about entrepreneurship practices increases innovative behaviour, interpersonal skills and motivation for accessing funds necessary for starting a business [7]. Similarly, Olugbola highlighted that there is a positive effect on motivation, opportunity and resource identification among young adults after entrepreneurship training [8]. It is predicted that male young adults who are self-employed show more functional independence, less inequality and social polarization, and decreased participation in deviant acts. This is important for social stability.

Beekeeping is a potential income generating activities for young adults in low income settings. Beekeeping activities has been reported to create job opportunities and increase household incomes]; there is relatively higher income for honey production compared to crop production [9]. In addition to increasing household income, beekeeping offers multiple benefits including nutritional and medicinal products for sale or home use [10] as well as improving pollination services essential for increased crop yields [11]. It is also important to note that entrepreneurship and beekeeping training among young adults helps to increase creativity and innovations towards self-employment [8,12,13]. However, it needs to focus on specific areas where the knowledge gained should be utilized.

In vocational schools, integrated entrepreneurship education play an important role in problem solving, and enables individuals who have received knowledge and skills to plan, start, and run their own businesses [13].

Evidence also shows that, self-employed young adults are less likely to engage in high risk behaviours than those who are daily wage earners or unemployed [14,15]. Ill health prevents a person from fulfilling activities of daily living and increases expenses spent seeking health care services. Likewise, it is postulated that self-employment can be good for mental and physical health outcomes in the society [16]. In this context, training vulnerable young adults on health issues, promotes good health which is a prerequisite for self-employment especially in low income countries.

Many challenges face would-be entrepreneurs among Tanzania’s young adults, including limited education, few employment opportunities, low financial capability, inadequate start-up capital, a lack of entrepreneurship culture and skills, and limited access to information. To address the issues of unemployment, a training program targeting vulnerable young men in DSM was developed and conducted to teach entrepreneurship. This was followed by the present study to assess the extent to which such an intervention could change the mind-set of young men toward the creation of self-employment.

Materials and methods

Sample size and Sampling procedure of participants and camps for training

A total of 71 camps were selected. In these camps, six important selection criteria were identified: camp name, number of male and female members, if the presence of a weapon was reported, if the interviewer felt safe, and whether the interviewer was told not to work there. Camps at which a weapon was reported (n = 20) or at which previous researchers had been asked not to work for safety reasons (n = 5), or where the interviewer did not feel safe (n = 9), were not included. Camps that had been chosen for previous research (n = 23) were also excluded. That left us with 14 camps from which to select our study population. Among these, 8 were not chosen because members were greater than 15 in number or because the camp had many female members. (Females were not included in this intervention because, compared to males, they were at low risk for receiving or perpetrating violence [19]]. Guided by maps drawn by Yamanis et al. [18], our researchers visited the remaining six camps to discuss the project with the camp leaders. Two of the camps were not selected because their members were not interested in beekeeping. Therefore, four camps remained for the training intervention. Then the researchers introduced themselves to the local government leaders of the areas in which those four camps existed.

Camp 1 had 12 members. Camps 2, 3, and 4 each had 15 members, giving a total of 57 participants at baseline, of whom 2 were female (Fig 1).

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Fig 1. Flow chart for camp and participants selection for training intervention.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221041.g001

The intervention

There were four arms of the intervention: health only, entrepreneurship and health, beekeeping and health, and all three combined. The 57 young people who attended the first day came from all four camps. The first session was an introduction to the project, and to informed consent. If the potential participants gave informed consent (which they all did), a baseline interview was conducted following which each camp was randomized into one of four arms, as shown in Table 1. These 57 members became a closed cohort that we followed through 10 day-long intervention sessions over 1.25 years, and then interviewed at 3-, 6- and 12-months postintervention.

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Table 1. Entrepreneurship, Beekeeping, and Health Intervention training sessions, by intervention arm.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221041.t001

The sessions were based on existing interventions used in Tanzania. The health sessions were based on topics used by United States Peace Corps medical officers training volunteers about how to stay healthy in Tanzania: nutrition, worms, HIV/AIDS/STDs, and first aid. The entrepreneurship training was conducted by the organization behind the Ruka Juu na Fema entrepreneurship TV programme; the same videos and trainers used for the TV programme were used for the present project. The entrepreneurship training was oriented toward young people without a lot of education, in order to support them in starting and running microbusinesses. The beekeeping training was conducted by current and retired beekeeping officers of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism. Field sessions took place and beehives were hung in the government forest at Kongowe, 40 kilometers west of DSM.

Different methods were used to train the participants, including lectures, simulations, field activities, and videos. Materials to make beehives were given to the participants at no charge, but none of them received financial capital for any of the interventions.

Findings

Characteristics of the participants

Most of the study participants were born in DSM. All participants had received at least a primary school education. None had training above the diploma level as shown in Table 2.

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Table 2. Demographic attributes of participants (N = 36).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221041.t002

Themes

Three themes and seven categories emerged, as shown in Table 3: (a) establishment and maintenance of an entrepreneurial business, (b) change in behaviour, and (c) perceived challenges for the intervention. The first theme describes the ability of the participants to initiate and sustain business activity. The second theme describes how the project changed the participants’ behaviours, attitudes, and practices toward overall life aspects. The third theme is related to challenges the participants encountered during the interventions.

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Table 3. Summary of themes and categories.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221041.t003

Discussion

The present study explored training interventions in entrepreneurship and/or beekeeping as ways of engaging vulnerable young adults in productive activities. Changes in behaviour that enabled the development of important skills for initiation and maintenance of entrepreneurship activities were one of the most important findings of the study. This study has highlighted some changes that were attributed to these few training sessions: ability to establish and maintain an entrepreneurial business, healthier lifestyle, and greater respect and recognition in the community.

The present study revealed that the skills needed to establish a business increased among many of the participants after the training interventions. Similar findings have been reported in other countries including Nigeria, Sri Lanka and USA [8,23,24]. However, the findings might not reflect the reality in Tanzania due to difference in economic level of these countries. Furthermore, our study revealed that human, social and financial capital are important aspects for initiating and maintaining entrepreneurial activities. This is also elucidated by Fatoki that, to develop and maintain small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) depends on human, social, and financial capital [25]. Even microbusinesses depend on these three types of capital. The categories that arose from the participants around the theme of establishment and maintenance of an entrepreneurial business were factors that contribute to a successful business. Our findings also indicate that if these factors are utilized effectively, vulnerable young adults can establish their own business as a basis for self-employment. In the United State, for example, individuals with low human capital, wealth and entrepreneurial entry were negatively affected when attempting self-employment [26]. In our interventions, many respondents reported having gained enough knowledge, skills, and interest to run microbusinesses that would lead to successful self-employment.

We have observed that financial management is an important factor for maintaining an entrepreneurial business. This is similarly revealed in various studies on which improvement in financial managements contributed significantly to entrepreneurial skills [27] and was affected by income level, educational level and workplace activity [28]. In this case, our studies aimed to improve financial literacy and management so that young adults can live independently through establishment of small enterprises such as part of self-employment. In this context, financial capital includes equity capital and debt. In Ghana, it was reported that financial capital is needed for a new business, but debt can negatively affect SMEs [29]. In the present study, improved financial capital was most commonly expressed as an increased ability to manage a budget. The participants’ self-perceived increase in fundamental financial management skills indicates that many young adults currently lack skills in keeping and managing money for maintaining a business. The training intervention has substantially improved their budgetary management necessary for maintaining a given business.

The customer care training in the present study seems to have inspired our participants to a notable change in entrepreneurial behaviour. In this instance, improvement in customer care implies that young adults can be successfully trained and be transformed to practice entrepreneurially oriented behaviour. Customer care is associated with social trust. In the USA, individuals in communities with high levels of social trust were more likely to be self-employed compared to individuals in communities with lower levels of social trust [30]. This is also reported in England where customer care was integral component of human relation competencies [31]. However, the findings in these countries might not be comparable to our findings due to economic differences as Tanzania is designated as a low-income country.

Behavioral change as reported in our study is not only good for individuals towards developing healthy lifestyles which are important for entrepreneurship [32], but also important for personal growth and recognition in the community as part of social capital [30,33]. In terms of health intervention, we did not expect the health session to be as important as it appears to have been. Changes in behaviour with respect to a healthy lifestyle were reported by the respondents as a result of a one-day health session. The participants suggested that living a healthy life could lead to increased productivity and that health-seeking behaviour could result in fewer ailments. Similar to other studies, social support from parents is associated with higher levels of healthy behaviours across adolescence and adulthood [34,35]. This implies that multiple behavioural and disease conditions often coexist in the same individual, resulting in a cumulative risk of poor health if intervention is not provided. Training of young adults on health-related matters can help to improve their health, as we found in our study. In the absence of such training, Mukherjee observed that if an individual becomes unhealthy and falls sick, then that person becomes unable to work for economic gain, which in turn makes them poor and sick again [36]. Health and self-employment have a mutual relationship. In the Netherlands and USA, self-employment has been associated with good health outcome [14–16] which is a key factor for successful entrepreneurs.

Recognition in the community is a reflection of community perception about young adults who are vulnerable due to poor parenting and/or poor adult behaviour [37]. Entrepreneurship and beekeeping training intervention facilitated recognition of these vulnerable young adults as potential people who can work productively to help themselves and their families. Recognition is an important aspect of social capital that supports initiation and maintenance of entrepreneurship activities. Previous studies in DSM have revealed that community violence is associated with unemployment and underemployment, which resulted in the resort to theft to meet basic needs of family and individual survival [2,19,38]. Our project has improved this perception significantly and we witnessed a willingness at the government level to allow beekeepers to place their hives in government forests. In other countries, studies have revealed that intervention related to improving social capital promotes entrepreneurship behaviour towards self-employment [32,39,40]. It is important to note that participants’ recognition and respect in the community, can be attributed to a perceived decrease in violent and rude behaviour that is a result of entrepreneurship and beekeeping training. Therefore, it can be understood that the intervention training might have changed some of the attributes of the participants that were perceived as threatening to the community and therefore can undertake productive microbusiness through the regained human capital.

The important perceived challenges reported by participants were strategic or methodological in origin. Start-up capital for initiating and maintaining a project is one of the strategic challenges highlighted in our study. Similar findings reported in Belgium, where it has been found that entrepreneurs often did not know about the available finance alternatives which was the barrier for initiating a business [41]. In spite of capital problems, there are other solutions available. For example, it is possible that young adults in Tanzania can obtain the necessary capital to initiate and maintain a planned entrepreneurial activity through existing institutions such as village community banks (VICOBA) and savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOS), with some guidance or training. Supporting the above statement, Marta et al. in Tanzania reported that loans from Microfinance institutions (MFIs), SACCOS, and VICOBA are available and the most accessible external capital by women entrepreneurs, followed by government subsidies and informal capital such as loans from friends, relative and investors [42]. It is therefore suggested that training to enable young entrepreneurs to access these options be included in future entrepreneurship interventions.

The most important limitations include the following; Firstly, there were no interaction boundaries between the participants before, during, or after the intervention. Although we selected camps from different localities, the members all came to a central location to learn. The respondents did extensive networking and information sharing during and between sessions, making it difficult to qualitatively evaluate the effect of each intervention separately. However, during the FGDs, participants were instructed to relate their own experiences as they participated in their respective intervention arms.

Secondly, only males were included in the current intervention training. It is well known that there is a gender difference in issues related to financial management that might affect the participants in developing entrepreneurial skills especially married women in African setting [43,44]. In our study, there were only two females who, however, dropped out from the training just after the first two sessions. Therefore, gender aspect was not possible to be addressed during the intervention. We recommend that when planning future training intervention on entrepreneurship and beekeeping should focus on females as young entrepreneurs.

Another limitation is that, these findings are based on a small sample which was limited to 36 out 57 participants. This provides a potential lack of data saturation as there were no additional participants who could add new information during data collection. Nevertheless, the authors elicited as much information as possible from the participants. This helped to get the relevant data that make these findings valuable for the entrepreneurs and beekeeping activities.

Lastly, it is not clear what aspects of the program have led to apparent success. Some research suggests that the special attention and extra support such programs provided for youth can lead to positive outcomes (i.e., a Hawthorne effect) regardless of the specific design features of a program [45,46].

We recommend that these preliminary qualitative results be informed by quantitative measurements that could inform researchers about the effect size of the interventions, including whether the participants’ incomes changed over time and whether cases of violence decrease.

Conclusion

The present study has documented that after a training intervention on entrepreneurship, beekeeping, and health, for underemployed young men led to increases in customer care, social capital and financial management which are the key factors to building, managing, and sustaining microbusinesses necessary for self-employment.

Supporting information

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all participants for making this study possible. The following people deserve special appreciation: Rwehabura France and Andrew Kapaya Augustine, for organizing, contacting, and keeping appointments with study participants; and Stephen Msemo and the Ministry of Tourism and Natural Resources, for support and for theoretical and practical training of the participants on beekeeping. We also thank the youth media platform Femina HIP, which generously shared its Ruka Juu entrepreneurship training material and cofacilitated some of the training. Finally, we thank the street and camp leaders for permission to conduct this study.