ENTREPRENEURS can solve the growing unemployment problem.
Primestars Marketing has been busy with Step Up 2, a start-up programme that will promote an entrepreneurial culture among some 15 000 high school pupils this year with the theme: “Seeking opportunity, connecting people and creating sustainable value”.
The programme, aimed at grade 9 to 11 pupils from township schools around Mzansi, was formed four years ago, and since then more that 60 000 pupils have benefited from it.
Nkosinathi Moshoana, general manager at Primestars Marketing, said: “Before people start businesses, they have to have the right mindset to start a business, and we try ignite that passion.
“If we ignite their passion, they will start their businesses right after they finish high school.”
Primestars works with private business and government to make the programme a success.
Nkosinathi said only when entrepreneurs were successful and boosting Mzansi’s economy, would more people find employment.
But too little is being done to nurture small business makers from a young age – and the programme wants to change that.
From 12 August, the high school pupils begin their journey into the world of entrepreneurship by watching the movie Vukuzenzele.
The movie will be screened at 15 Ster-Kinekor cinemas, nationwide, over five weeks.
As part of the programme, the pupils will receive a special toolkit designed to help them implement the skills they learn and to develop their own business ideas and models.
Pupils will be given the opportunity to compete in an entrepreneurial competition by submitting their business model for assessment and adjudication by a panel of judges selected from industry professionals and sponsors.
During this process, nine business models will be identified and the teams responsible will be invited to attend a boot camp in Joburg.
The boot camp will sharpen and polish participants’ skills as they start to think more about developing and starting their businesses, based on the ideas they submitted.
