Alex youths were recently exposed to entrepreneurial thinking by the Netherlands Embassy in an attempt to encourage them to be future small business operators.
Conducted at Kwa-Bhekilanga Secondary School, the workshop was jointly conducted by the Royal Haskoning DHV, an international project management consultancy, the Seed Academy, a business and leadership training institute, and the Netherlands Embassy.
The consultancy has supported 14 schools in the country since 2007 through weekend tutoring that has reached over 1 200 Grade 11 and 12 students in maths, science and engineering.
The workshop was to promote the development of future small businesses and entrepreneurs as part of the Embassy’s House of the Future, an event that took place from 16 to 20 November 2015 at Turbine Hall in Newtown. The event was part of a festival of economic and cultural activities to stimulate and celebrate the co-operation between South Africa and the Netherlands in the health, logistics, energy, agri-food and water sectors.
In their big orange bus, the House of the Future team, which included youths from the Netherlands, exposed 50 local youths to other young successful South African entrepreneurs who opened them up to entrepreneurial possibilities and inspired them to consider becoming entrepreneurs.
“We want to give them practical experiences to ignite their entrepreneurial interest,” said Pauline Makama of the consultancy.
Suhana Bisnath of the academy said that they also exposed the youths to the process of generating new business ideas through interactive group work and brainstorming.
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