According to Statistics South Africa 2020 quarter three labour force survey, unemployment has increased and is at 30.8%, meaning that the substantial increase went from 2.2 million to 6.5milliion. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, our unemployment problem affected 55.2% of young South Africans aged between 15 and 24 who were unable to find jobs. As bleak as the picture may seem there are opportunities to change and improve the current climate. With the current slow economic growth, a global COVID-19 pandemic, social challenges, and uncertainty we need to start innovating and start building and nurturing entrepreneurship at a young age. Developing entrepreneurship can be viewed as one of our chances at stemming unemployment and creating jobs, thereby alleviating poverty, and addressing the inequalities in our society.
The Allan Gray Orbis Foundation believes that entrepreneurship education is a basic human right and entrepreneurship education should be grounded in learned optimism and agency. The Allan Gray Entrepreneurship Challenge is an enabler that will offer South African high school learners the chance to take part in this Challenge, as a real step towards democratizing entrepreneurial education. It presents an opportunity to break away from one-dimensional thinking, and create a safe, fun space for learners to develop the skills that they will use to respond to our changing world in an appropriate and effective manner through harnessing the power of the digital world. The use of gamification will provide high school learners with access to entrepreneurial thinking and problem-solving as well as the development of entrepreneurial competencies, resilience, adaptability, and the ability to identify opportunity is crucial if we are to future-proof our children.
“The Entrepreneurship Challenge is inclusive and open to all high school learners across the country and participation is at no cost, we encourage learners to logon to our website and follow the simple registration steps,” said Roheid Ojageer, Allan Gray Entrepreneurship Challenge Manager.
The gaming network, a feature of the Entrepreneurship Challenge, is a social media platform that can be used by learners, parents, NGOs, teachers, government partners and entrepreneurs for impactful networking and collaboration. The game itself is open only to learners who have registered on the gaming network.
The game starts by setting the scene, players will pick a stream for the entire five-weeks, establish a start-up, grow the business, and earn points all on an interactive digital platform.
“We are fortunate that we are able to leverage scalable technology to do this and grateful, too, for the partnerships with government, NGOs, start-ups and other stakeholders that make this extended access possible, “said Roheid Ojageer.
Imparting an entrepreneurial mindset that allows for a different lens to be applied during these adverse times, gives learners the thinking and the competencies to make sense of situations to problem solve and to find an opportunity to add value to society.
