The national Student Entrepreneurship Week is the best empowerment platform for students aspiring to become entrepreneurs. Students enrolled in higher education institutions need to appreciate more than ever before that employment post-graduation is not a given. COVID-19 dampened South Africa’s growth prospects to worse levels than those predicted in 2019. Students must therefore strive to equip themselves with the basics of entrepreneurship, so as to identify solutions to society’s most pressing challenges now, by participating in economic activities while studying.
These are remarks by Dr Norah Clarke, Director of Universities South Africa’s Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) programme. In the week leading up to the national Student Entrepreneurship Week (#SEW2020) that commences on Monday 2 November, Dr Clarke explained why students must take entrepreneurial initiatives at their universities seriously in general, and in particular, why they must do their utmost to participate in the week-long #SEW2020 event from 2 to 4 November 2020.
For the first time since this event was established in 2017, the EDHE programme will be hosting #SEW2020 as a combined national and multi-institutional event. Twenty-one institutions will be sharing one common programme that runs from Monday, 2 November and wraps up on Thursday, 5 November. As was done with the EDHE Lekgotla 2020, the #SEW proceedings will be livestreamed on the Whova app.
According to Dr Clarke, this enables anyone to see what each of the 21 public universities and 3 technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges will be showcasing – in a rare opportunity never seen before in this particular context. The opening ceremony of the virtual #SEW2020 will be hosted from the University of the Free State (UFS).
In addition to the morning’s welcome addresses, the day is dedicated to showcasing how the UFS Business School collaborates with the local business and banking sector in driving entrepreneurship for the common good. A speaker from the Central University of Technology will add a research perspective on entrepreneurship. To further unravel its entrepreneurship strategy and narrate how academics encourage innovation and support student enterprises, the UFS will showcase how academic support got 11 tangible business projects off the ground. The audience will also hear first-hand from the studentpreneurs behind these projects how the university assisted them in their respective journeys from ideation through commercialisation to the market.
Participate and engage through the Whova app and the