Entrepreneurial initiative teaches business ethics at an early age + VIDEOs
iValue is an enrichment programme, which focuses on providing entrepreneurial skills to preselected Grade 10 learners.
Valued Citizens Initiative, a non-governmental organisation that runs life skills programmes in public schools in partnership with the private sector and the Department of Education infused entrepreneurial ethics to the iValue programme as an essential part of building future business leaders.
iValue partners include the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and Strate – a South African central securities depository that provides an electronic settlement platform for equities, bonds and money market securities.
According to Carole Podetti-Ngono, founder and managing director of Valued Citizens Initiative, iValue is an enrichment programme, which focuses on providing entrepreneurial skills to preselected Grade 10 learners chosen on the basis of their entrepreneurship character, determination, perseverance and an appetite for risk-taking.
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For a period of one year, they learn the value of becoming entrepreneurs, working on a business idea and developing a business plan.
During this phase, they are mentored by eight students studying small business management at UJ and ultimately will present their business plans to a panel of business academics from the university and senior executives from Strate.
On Wednesday, March 7, Valued Citizens held an entrepreneurship awards ceremony to award the finalists and announce winners at the University of Johannesburg Soweto Campus.
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Speaking at the ceremony, Anisah Patel, Release Manager in Information Technology (IT) Division from Strate adviced the young entrepreneurs to believe in themselves, to put an effort and never give up.
Nora Clark, Project Manager of Entrepreneurship Development, University Education Branch (DHET) motivated the young entrepreneurs. She told them to have resilience and made an example with a tennis ball.
“When you rise from your fall, you must bounce back like a tennis ball. If you take a tennis ball and throw it hard against the ground, it will bounce back even higher. So, be like tennis balls,” she said.
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Going by the name Dalthydose, learners from Forte High School in Dobsonville, Slindile Madinane, Ofentse Malope and Letlhogonolo Mothoagae were announced the winners based on profit, dedication and resilience.
The name Dalthydose was derived from the words, Daily Healthy Dose and is synonymous with their business as they sell personal hygiene pads, Lip balms, Sanitizers and hand lotions.
“We have realised that in our surroundings toilets are dirty, sometimes there is no water hence the introduction of sanitizers and hygiene pads. Also, most schools don’t allow those usual shiny and colourful lipsticks an lipgloss, so we came with a solution for dry lips,” said Malope.
“The only challenges we encountered was time management and that people took time to trust our products, more especially because we currently don’t have barcodes. But we never gave up, we kept promoting our products with confidence,” said Mothoagae.
“Our target market is everyone that is in need of our products, but our focus was more on schools. We are still going to continue, we want to grow and add more products such as tissues,” said Madinane.
To learn more about their product, like their Facebook page, Dalthydose or email them on dalthydose@gmail.com
Winners were awarded R20 000. 60% of that amount to be re-invested into the business, 10% to be invested in the community and 30% to be shared amongst the shareholders.
“The journey towards embracing ethics in business needs to start during the early stages of education when we introduce entrepreneurship training to our youth, however, we encourage them to focus on passing their Grade 12 and further their studies, preferably business related, we don’t encourage them to start focusing on these businesses immediately after Grade 12,” said Podetti-Ngono.
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