Over a hundred and sixty women recently graduated from the Junior Achievement South Africa (JA South Africa) Youth Enterprise Development Programme 2017, in line with efforts made by the company to empower women in across the country.
These women were young and unemployed or self-employed, within the age bracket of 18 to 35. They were engaged in a 20 weeks programme of theoretical and practical sessions focusing on business theory, market research, financial and business management, sales and marketing, computer literacy and business funding. With an opportunity to participate in a six-month mentorship programme at the end of the programme.
This programme was powered by the Mastercard-funded initiative to empower women with entrepreneurial vision to pursue a business of their own.
During the 20 weeks programme the women were opportune to gain practical interpersonal skills and business experience by starting up and managing their own businesses.
Concerning the programme, the managing director of JA South Africa, Nelly Mofokeng said “Entrepreneurs characteristically have ambition, determination and a flair for original ideas. However, many lack the business expertise required to develop these into commercially-viable ventures,”
“A key focus of our programme is to help equip young women with the skills to launch and grow their own businesses, and instill the discipline of earning a living, saving, spending and investing.”
“The JA South Africa Programme is just one of the partnerships we have established to dismantle the structural obstacles and biases that impede female entrepreneurship so that women can play an enlarged role in South Africa’s economic growth story.”
At the graduation ceremony the women received a NQF level 4 Services Seta Accredited Youth Enterprise Development Certificate and the Intel Learn Easy Steps Digital Literacy Certificate.