Floriculture is one of the promising sectors in Uganda. One of the weaknesses, however, is the lack of  qualified labour. For that reason two Ugandan education institutions are developing new curricula on floriculture in collaboration with a consortium of knowledge institutes from the Netherlands. This project is financed by Nuffic, the Netherlands organization for international co-operation in higher education.

Project objective 

The overall objective of this project is to strengthen the capacity for education and training in the floriculture sector in Uganda to improve the performance of this sector, hence contributing to the development of the Ugandan economy. 

This is to be achieved through capacity building and developing an innovative but practical curriculum in the two involved Ugandan education institutions, Bukalasa Agricultural College (BAC) and Mountains of the Moon University (MMU). The project will be carried out by a consortium of knowledge institutes in the Netherlands, consisting of the Practical Training Centre PTC+ and three institutes of Wageningen University and Research centre, namely WUR-LEI, WUR-Horticulture and WUR-ECS. The project aims at building institutional links between the existing training institutions, producers’ organizations and private companies to ensure the continuation of the project after the project is ended.

Project target groups  

The project target groups are the staff of the training institutions undertaking floriculture training in Uganda and the (future) staff of the flower farms, in particular supervisors and management. Essential in this project is building sustainable links between the training/education institutions and the private floriculture industry, i.e. flower farms and their representing organizations. For that purpose the Uganda Flower Exporters Association (UFEA) is directly involved in the project preparation and implementation and a substantial part of the trainings and related research activities will be carried out the flower farms.

Project activities 

The project activities are grouped in the following working packages:

WP 1  Curriculum Development

WP 2  Capacity building and course development

WP 3  Applied research

WP 4  Investments

WP 5  Smallholder floriculture

WP 6  Project management

Schematic overview of project approach

The project activities are strongly interlinked and related. The new curricula to be developed in WP1 will form the backbone of the project. In order to foster project ownership the curriculum and course material development will be carried out by Ugandan staff. They will be trained accordingly and supported by Dutch experts during the entire project (WP2). Three staff members of each institute plus two from the flower farms will participate in an intensive two-months training of trainers course in the Netherlands and they will be form the core-team for developing and implementing the new courses and trainings. Based on the developed curricula, course and training material will be developed in WP2. The research activities (WP3) in this project are practical and flexible and will constitute an integral part of the education and training program and support the institutes and farms in setting up and maintaining regular trials and practice oriented research projects. Because both education institutes do not have adequate facilities the project will provide the required facilities and equipment, amongst others a greenhouse and practical training rooms at each institute (WP4). The activities in the above mentioned working packages are mainly focussed on the needs of the large scale floriculture farms. WP 5, however, will focus on the smallholder flower producers and is aimed at fostering partnership, developing marketing strategies and specific training courses that meet the smallholders’ needs. 

Courses to be developed 

• A two-year certificate course for O-level students;
• A two-year diploma course for A-level students or students with a certificate;
• Short duration tailor-made training courses with a modular character.  

Substantial attention will be paid to both theory and practice and an internship on a commercial flower farm is part of the curricula. It is the intention to have the first package of courses and the required facilities ready in September 2007.

Project approach 

The activities in the working packages follow roughly the same approach, consisting of a series of sequential steps, from needs assessment, via design, implementation, evaluation and revision of actions towards final results.

More information on the workingpackages can be found on the following pages and in the inception report.