By Dr Etuna Simon
Last week, something interesting happened in Windhoek.
For three days, the Hage Geingob Stadium precinct came alive. From 2 to 4 September 2026, people gathered for the Creative Sport Tourism Expo.
Sport was there. Tourism was there. The creative industries were there too.
For once, these sectors were not standing in separate corners. They came together. They shared one space. One conversation. One possibility.
Now the stands have been packed away. The sporting activities are over. The conversations have ended.
But one question should stay with us: What does this new and growing economy mean for education?
Because if sport, tourism and creativity are beginning to create new opportunities, then our education system must ask whether it is preparing young Namibians to take part in them.
The answer should concern every school, vocational training centre, university and policymaker.
If Namibia is serious about transforming sport, tourism and creativity into engines of employment and enterprise, then our education system cannot remain a spectator. It must begin preparing the people who will design, manage, market, research, digitise and ultimately own this value chain.
A value chain hiding in plain sight
At the official opening of the Creative, Sport and Tourism Expo at the Hage Geingob Stadium on 2 September 2026, President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, in a statement delivered on her behalf by Finance Minister Ericah Shafudah, called for sport, tourism and the creative industries to be developed as productive sectors capable of generating employment, income and economic opportunities.
More importantly, she challenged Namibia to stop treating these sectors as side activities and to recognise them as productive industries capable of creating jobs, income and lasting value.
Her message deserves particular attention from the education sector. When the public watches a football match, boxing tournament, cycling race or athletics event, the athlete is the most visible person.
Yet an entire economy operates around that athlete. There are coaches, physiotherapists, nutritionists, administrators, event managers, photographers, videographers, broadcasters, commentators, designers, musicians, marketers, ticketing specialists, security personnel, caterers, transport operators, accommodation providers, tour guides, software developers and data analysts.
This is why the President’s reminder that “talent alone is not a development strategy” matters. Talent requires systems. Systems require skills. Skills require deliberate education and training.
The Sixth National Development Plan (NDP6) already points in this direction. NDP6 seeks to professionalise and commercialise sport and increase its contribution to employment from about 1 percent to 3.5 percent by 2030. It also calls for stronger industry-higher education partnerships and a more responsive higher education system. Those ambitions cannot be achieved through policy language alone. They have to become curriculum decisions.
Sport is no longer only about playing
For many years, sport in education has largely been understood through physical education, school competitions and athlete development. All three remain important. But the modern sports economy demands a broader educational imagination.
A learner who loves football does not have to become a professional footballer to build a career around football. That learner might become a sports physiotherapist, sports journalist, digital marketer, performance analyst, coach, referee, event organiser, sports lawyer or entrepreneur. A learner fascinated by cycling may one day design cycling experiences for tourists, operate a bicycle maintenance enterprise, build a digital registration platform, manage a race, produce event content or establish accommodation and transport services around a cycling route.
The educational shift is therefore profound. We should not only ask young people, “What job do you want?” We should also ask: “What value can you create around the industries Namibia is trying to build?”
A tourism classroom beyond the hotel
The same rethinking is required in tourism education. Sport tourism expands tourism beyond the conventional image of accommodation, tour guiding and sightseeing. It asks us to think about why people travel and how events can become destination experiences.
A marathon can bring visitors into a town. A cycling event can take them through landscapes they might otherwise never experience. A boxing championship can fill hotel rooms, restaurants and transport services. Traditional games can become cultural experiences. Adventure sport can showcase Namibia’s desert, coast and open spaces to a global audience.
The visitor who arrives for sport does not spend money only at the venue. That visitor eats, sleeps, travels, buys merchandise, visits attractions, interacts with local culture and creates demand for services across the host community. One sporting event can therefore activate a chain of economic activity extending far beyond the final whistle.
The curriculum must catch up
The most important lesson from the Creative Sport Tourism Expo is that our curricula must become as interconnected as the economy itself. Universities and TVET institutions should consider interdisciplinary qualifications, short courses, micro-credentials and professional programmes in areas such as sport management, sport tourism, event production, adventure tourism, sports marketing, sports media and broadcasting, coaching science, sport analytics, facility management, digital content creation and sports entrepreneurship.
Not every emerging skill requires a three- or four-year degree. Some can be delivered through short courses, industry certification and flexible professional development. Others can be embedded into existing programmes in tourism, hospitality, business, education, media, information technology, health sciences and sports science.
What matters most is how these programmes are developed. Curriculum should not be designed inside universities and then presented to industry as a finished product. Sports federations, event organisers, hotels, tour operators, broadcasters, municipalities, technology companies, creative practitioners and entrepreneurs should help define the competencies graduates need.
This is precisely why university-industry collaboration is no longer an optional extra. The economy is changing too quickly for academic institutions to work in isolation.
Schools can turn sport into project-based learning
The opportunity begins long before tertiary education. Schools can use sport as a practical platform for interdisciplinary learning. Imagine an interschool tournament where learners do more than compete. Business Studies learners develop a sponsorship proposal and budget. Computer Studies learners create a simple registration system. Art and Design learners develop branding and merchandise concepts. Language learners write promotional material and conduct interviews. Tourism learners design a visitor itinerary. Mathematics learners analyse attendance, scores and expenditure. Media learners produce photographs, short videos and social-media content.
A school sports day suddenly becomes a laboratory for entrepreneurship, collaboration, communication, digital literacy and problem solving. That is the kind of education that helps learners understand how knowledge moves from the classroom into the economy.
Youth unemployment makes this urgent
This conversation is not merely about modernising curricula. It is about livelihoods. Namibia’s 2023 Population and Housing Census Labour Force Report placed national unemployment at 36.9 percent, while youth unemployment among those aged 15 to 34 was about 44 percent. These figures should change the way we think about the purpose of education.
We cannot build an education system that prepares young people only to apply for vacancies. We must also equip them to identify markets, create services, commercialise talent and build enterprises. Creative sport tourism offers exactly the kind of cross-sector opportunity in which a young person can combine a passion with business, technology, culture or professional expertise. This does not mean every learner should become an entrepreneur. It means every learner should leave education with a clearer understanding of how value is created, how industries connect and how skills can be transferred across sectors.
The creative economy must be treated as real work
The word “creative” in Creative Sport Tourism is equally significant. Namibia still has work to do in treating creative occupations as serious economic professions. Designers, photographers, musicians, filmmakers, content creators, fashion entrepreneurs and craftspeople are often invited into national events, yet the economic value of their work is not always recognised with the same seriousness as more traditional professions.
President Nandi-Ndaitwah addressed this directly at the Expo when she stated that “exposure is not a substitute for payment”. That sentence should resonate beyond the creative sector. Professionalisation requires education, standards, contracts, intellectual-property awareness, business skills and fair remuneration.
Our institutions should therefore teach young creatives not only how to create, but also how to price their work, protect intellectual property, negotiate contracts, build brands, use digital platforms and access markets. Creativity becomes sustainable when talent is supported by professional competence.
Universities must research the economy they want to build
Higher education also has a research responsibility. If sport tourism is to become a meaningful economic sector, Namibia needs evidence about it. How much does a sporting event contribute to a host town? How many visitors does it attract? What do they spend? Which local enterprises benefit? Which skills are scarce? What infrastructure is required? What environmental pressures arise? How can communities retain more of the value generated by events?
These questions should become undergraduate research projects, master’s dissertations, doctoral studies and university-industry research partnerships. Universities should not merely observe emerging sectors after they have matured. They should help Namibia understand, measure and shape them while they are still developing.
After the Expo, the real work begins
The Creative Sport Tourism Expo has now concluded. That should not mean the conversation concludes with it. In fact, this is the point at which the serious work begins. The Expo demonstrated that sport can be a tourism product, tourism can be a platform for culture, creativity can be a business, and technology can connect all three. It also reminded us that a single event can generate opportunities for people far beyond those competing on the field.
The challenge now is to translate that insight into programmes, courses, school projects, research agendas, business incubators, internships and partnerships. Namibia does not need education that waits for industries to mature before responding to them. It needs education capable of recognising opportunity while it is emerging.
The exhibition stands may be gone, but the curriculum question remains: if sport, creativity and tourism are becoming new platforms for entrepreneurship, innovation and employment, how quickly can our education system move from preparing young Namibians to watch these industries grow to preparing them to build, lead and own them?
Dr Etuna Simon is a researcher, strategist and writer with a keen interest in education, innovation, artificial intelligence and national development. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author. She can be reached at etunasimon@icloud.com
