“The mammoth unemployment rate in South Africa emphasises the serious need to cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit in our schools – enter Scooler: The School Entrepreneur Movement that is challenging government and businesses to stop talking about unemployment and commit to creating an entrepreneurial spirit in our schools,” says the founder of Scooler, Leon Lategan.
The company’s purpose is to draw Grade Eight to Grade 12 learners from across the country, and from all walks of life, into the School Entrepreneur Movement by making them aware of what entrepreneurship is about.
It seeks to inspire them to shape their own futures by exploring an alternative to mainstream tertiary education.
High school learners are being called upon to make monumental decisions about their future and careers but with the current state of employment in South Africa, limited opportunities make for much tougher choices.
Lategan adds: “We have found a serious lack of information available to learners at school around the subject of entrepreneurship, resulting in very few of them exploring this avenue after school.”
The R100 000 Scooler Clash was launched on August 23, calling on all Grade Eight to 12 learners to enter for free, and battle it out to win R100 000 for the best existing business or money-making initiative currently run by a learner still in school.
The winner will receive a R50 000 cash prize and R50 000 worth of mentoring, coaching, advertising and social media exposure for their business.
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All the submitted businesses will be profiled on the Scooler website where friends, family and the Scooler community will all have the opportunity to vote for the learner they believe is the best entrepreneur running the best business.
Four runners-up will each also receive R10 000 worth of coaching for their businesses.
The company provides a platform for learners to start asking vital questions and exploring entrepreneurial alternatives.
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On the Scooler website and via their social media platforms, learners have access to valuable information about how to run a business; how to secure funding for their business; how to connect with like-minded youth and how to get exposure of their existing school businesses or money-making initiatives to the community, corporates and investors.
Self-confessed university drop-out Lategan says: “I was never exposed to the idea of entrepreneurship and yet my career path shifted into just that.”
He adds he was concerned about seeing South Africa’s unemployment rate skyrocket from 1.6 million to 5.98 million since 1995, with predictions of over six million in 2019. This encouraged him to stop waiting for government and businesses to take action and to step up by launching Scooler, to create and inspire an entrepreneurial spirit in schools.
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