The Amabhubesi Youth Development & Entrepreneurship Conference is being held on 25 and 26 September at Montecasino in Fourways, Johannesburg.
The conference has a twofold approach:
- Focusing on Youth Development to increase employability by 2020
- Encouraging and developing youth entrepreneurship to stimulate economic growth.
Despite its crucial role in growing the economy and employment, entrepreneurship is rarely considered from a youth point of view. The result is that the potential benefits of youth entrepreneurship for improving livelihoods, expanding the economy and promoting jobs, have not been fully realised.
The National Youth Development Agency has been mandated to focus on the issue of youth unemployment, to support skills development and create mechanisms to encourage youth employability.
Entrepreneurship as a priority
The first priority is growing entrepreneurship. Self-employment and entrepreneurship are described as “challenging strategies” fraught with “a variety of barriers,” including lack of appropriate education, limited access to capital, lack of social networks, lack of support from corporate SA; which hinders entrepreneurship becoming a solution to youth unemployment.
The National Youth Policy calls for a multi-sectoral approach involving stakeholders in the public sector, civil society and the private sector, where all these key role players work together in promoting youth development.
Conference highlights
- DTI – the DTI’s youth enterprise development strategy: 2012 – 2022
- NYDA – Gauteng youth employability strategy
- ABSA – Small Business in SA: a pillar of the economy
- Standard Bank – Entrepreneurship in agriculture
- SEDA – The role of entrepreneurship in SA
- Productivity SA – Keys to ensure maximum impact for entrepreneurial development in SA
- Global Entrepreneurship Monitor – A global perspective, where SA stands