Spaza Shop owners graduate from Wits Business School

Grand-Pa partnered with the Centre for Entrepreneurial Development at Wits Business School to develop a course that will help Spaza Shop owners fast track their business success.

Welcoming the opportunity for a corporate partnership, the director of the Centre, Chimene Chetty said ‘it’s important for big organisations such as GlaxoSmithKline (who manufacture Grand-Pa) who understand their route to market, to step into spaces like this and see how they can use what they have to make a difference.

The fact that a corporate is in partnership with an educational institution is also a bit of an innovation.

The first pilot course was attended by 40 Spaza Shop owners from across Gauteng. Over a period of 5 weeks, these students were introduced to specially devised modules covering topics such as:

· You and Your Business

· Understanding and building your business

· Managing your business finance

· Marketing

· Customer Service

The course was accredited by the Wits Academic Programme Office, so that it has an NQF level rating two.

Dr Adam Gordon, Acting Head of School commented, ‘As much as this Spaza Shop programme is a departure from our regular market and student, business schools globally are moving towards building business partnerships by adding value and staying in touch with their surrounding communities.’

The positive response and commitment to improving knowledge and skills were very evident in the attendance and performance of students during the five week course. Each student had very specific personal goals and objectives to improve their business performance so that they could continue to offer a valuable service to their customers and for some, to continue to provide employment.

Dr Thami Mazwai, Resident Executive: Wits Business School says, ‘Skills development is the proven way of improving people’s lives and, in the process, growing the economy so that more people escape poverty.’

The WBS Grand-Pa Spaza Shop students experienced a full academic graduation ceremony today, where they received an official WBS Certificate of Attendance.

On-going post-course business mentoring for the participants will be provided by the Department of the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller.

Spokesperson for GlaxoSmithKline, Dave Thomas says, ‘The investment in this worthwhile initiative is in keeping with our philosophy of developing business effectiveness within the Spaza shop industry in South Africa. These small and medium size retailers provide an invaluable service within their communities and through initiatives such as this, we believe we can assist in growing their business success’.