Given a chance, majority of the country’s youth would settle on the comfort of a government job than the hard slog of entrepreneurship, which requires one to work too hard for long hours.
Recent research from the University of Cape Town (UCT) for the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) revealed that two thirds (67%) of the country’s youth believed government employment was the ticket to good life. In addition, the youth did not see entrepreneurship as a viable career choice, despite the potential it held to generate jobs and wealth.
Though entrepreneurship was on an upward trend, youth people were not entrepreneurially minded enough to sustain it, the research acknowledged. So, Jacqui Kew, co-author of the report, believed there was a critical need for change in perceptions and attitudes amongst young South Africans towards entrepreneurship.
“We need to celebrate our entrepreneurial role models and create more realistic perceptions about what starting a small business can offer young people,” he said.