Boot camp for young entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship is not for the fainthearted, though it is often punted as the practical solution to the country’s youth unemployment crisis.

 It is with this in mind that the South African Breweries (SAB) will be running Startup Bootcamp, a pilot programme of SAB KickStart. The youth entrepreneurship development programme, will target about 50 entrepreneurs based across Limpopo.

The programme targets those aged between 18 and 35 and have been operating an innovative business idea or start up for not more than six months, are looking to looking to acquire tools to improve their concepts and operations.

“The aim is to fill a critical gap in the entrepreneurship support ecosystem, namely the lack of support for the origination and growth of ideas,” Boipelo Nkadimeng, head of SAB’s enterprise development and community partnerships, told Transform SA in a telephone interview.

SAB recognises that relevant and innovative business development support is difficult to access, especially by youth in rural areas, Nkadimeng explained.

“This is an exciting venture for us as we extend our objective through SAB KickStart of growing a culture of entrepreneurship across the country,” she said. “It further allows us to build a strong and quality pipeline for our main programme, which aims to develop high impact youth-owned businesses capable of making a sustainable contribution to job creation.”