Aaron Nicodemus
Thembi Nkosi is 20 years old, and manager of a print and coffee shop with dreams of owning his own printing business. He knows the nuts and bolts of how to run a business – balancing its books, ordering stock, keeping customers happy.
He got the job by writing a business plan for the caf that helped it expand into Internet services. Through experience he is learning how to make small improvements that will eventually translate into profits.
Nkosi learned his business skills through the Youth Enterprise Society (Yes) whose slogan is “Helping youth mind their own business”. The organisation’s budget is completely funded by private organisations, who read like the who’s who of the South African business world: Nedcor, Absa, Engen, Eskom, Old Mutual, Coca-Cola, Anglo-American, De Beers, Standard Bank, Foodcorp and Sasol, to name a few.
The programme has international sponsors like the Commission of the European Union and the United States Agency for International Development. Pilot programmes are either already implemented or planned in every province in South Africa. Yes’s aim is to provide a bridge between youth and the dog- eat-dog world of private business. Nkosi’s one of their successes.
“To be honest with myself, I really don’t know what my life would have been like without this programme,” Nkosi says. “It enables youth to be the masters of their own business.”
Other young people have also found success after Yes. One story involves twins who revived their uncle’s window-replacement business and turned it into a viable enterprise.
A Grade 11 pupil learned how to draw housing plans and opened his own architecture business.
Many other young people have learned the basics of retail: buying wholesale, then reselling products, while keeping an eye on the bottom line.
It is estimated that only 11% of matriculants are able to find employment, either in the private sector or civil service. South Africa’s unemployment rate among its black majority hovers around 44%, and the reasons for this are varied: poverty, sub-standard education, lack of access to transportation and training.
Many young people, even those with an education, are left with few alternatives to begging and street crime.
“We want to help the youth create their own jobs,” says Arie Bouwer, national director of the Education with Enterprise Trust, which runs the Yes initiative. “We’ve found students have become more self-confident while learning these business skills. The power of Yes is actually a key to unlock their potential. They take ownership of their future.”
The programme is most visible in the Free State, where Yes societies operate in over a dozen communities. Society members meet regularly to learn business skills, and in the process each member is expected to start his/her own business with the skills learned.
At St Mary’s School in Johannesburg, students from Alexandra township arrive by minibus taxis three days a week for business classes.
Calvin Bosch (21) is using the school’s computers to make colourful greeting cards and small posters that he sells to family and friends. Eventually, he’d like to expand his business, maybe selling items in town.
“We need to learn things like this,” Bosch says. “If you can figure out how to own your own business, you can make your life better. That’s what I intend to do.”
Other students in the programme are selling baked goods; one is learning how to operate a hairdressing shop out of her home.
“What’s exciting is that two months down the line, they start really applying their skills,” says Margaret Southey, co-ordinator of the Yes program at St Mary’s.
“Only the students who are succeeding in school are allowed in the programme, and only the ones who take it to heart are nurtured.”
It’s competitive, she says, just like the real world.
“Working here helps me show my ability, and prove that I can do what- ever it takes to get my life going,” Nkosi says.
“People like me are doing something better with their lives.”
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