1. African Entrepreneurship in Global Contexts
FOSTERING ENTREPRENEURSHIP
EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA: THE
ROLE OF SECTOR EDUCATION TRAINING
AUTHORITIES (SETA)
Kachesa E Bbenkele1 and Alain A. Ndedi2
University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Abstract: Programmes which aim at developing entrepreneurship are numerous
in South Africa but tangible results are difficult to see, if any, as unemployment
is still high. The reasons are twofold: either there are not many new enterprises
that are being created or there is insufficient growth that is taking place within
existing enterprises.
The present study investigates some of the interventions which have been
introduced by the South African government through its various agencies to
support entrepreneurship and points out the challenges they face, namely
policy development, operational and pedagogic impediments. A simple model
is suggested for development of entrepreneurship training and suggests roles
to be played by the Sector Education Training Authorities (SETAs) and other
development agencies.
Keywords: Entrepreneurship Education, South Africa, Employment.
INTRODUCTION contribute to economic development has
been widely recognised.
The interdependence of economic develop-
ment and socio-political change is generally However, Orford Herrington and Wood
recognized by social scientists (Adelman and (2004) caution that though this is a widely
Morris, 1965). Entrepreneurship is consid- held desire, entrepreneurship is poorly un-
ered to be an important mechanism for eco- derstood. This poor understanding is also
nomic development through employment, from the fact that the “animal” usually re-
innovation, and welfare effects (Wennekers ferred to as the entrepreneur, is more com-
and Thurik, 1999; Baumol, 2002). The im- plex that the way described by the classical
portance of developing entrepreneurship to economists like Schumpeter (1931, 1934)
1
K. E. Bbenkele is HOD of Entrepreneurship at the University of Johannesburg, ZA, Email: ebbenkele@uj.ac.za
2
A. A. Ndedi is a lecturer at the Department of Entrepreneurship, University of Johannesburg, ZA,
Email: Ndedi.alain@gmail.com
Copyright © 2010 WASD
1

2. 2 Kachesa E Bbenkele and Alain A. Ndedi
who saw him as a person who does things in developing entrepreneurship in South
“that are not generally done in the ordinary Africa. The policies and strategies used are
course of business routine. He is an ideas discussed and an approach suggested. The
man and a man of action who possesses the value of the paper is in guiding policy mak-
ability to inspire others and who does not ers on how best to build entrepreneurship
accept the boundaries of structured situa- in South Africa for the needed contribution
tions, the creative destructor”. Say (1803; to economic growth.
1996) furthered the work of Schumpeter
and distinguished the entrepreneur and the
capitalist and further linked the entrepre-
neurs and saw them as agents of change. THE THOERETICAL FRAMEWORK
De Vries (1977) describes the entrepre- If entrepreneurship is understood to be
neur as “an individual often inconsistent based on the needed behavioural patterns
and confused about his motives, desires and which are influenced by social, economic
wishes, a person under a lot of stress who of- and psychodynamic forces, any attempts
ten upsets us by his or her seemingly ‘irratio- aimed at supporting entrepreneurs should
nal’ impulsive activities”. This positioning recognize these forces and develop effective
is behavioural and useful when we consider interventions to increase the total entrepre-
efforts aimed at supporting and developing neurial activity in South Africa. Orford et
entrepreneurs. This also suggests the diffi- al (2004) in their Global Monitor Report
cult of providing assistance or support to define entrepreneurial activity as the rate
entrepreneurs. Indeed, many countries have at which a nation creates new businesses.
been implementing many programmes and There are many reasons motivating this pos-
spending a lot of money is establishing insti- ture is multiple. Although most individuals
tutions around this and no tangible benefits are pulled into entrepreneurial activity be-
have been realised by many. cause of opportunity recognition, others are
pushed into entrepreneurship because they
In simple terms, Antonites (2003) de- have no other means of making a living and
fines an entrepreneur as an individual with are unemployed. For those who are pulled
the potential to create a vision from virtu- to entrepreneurship, two major drivers of
ally nothing. Timmons (1994, 7) regards the opportunity entrepreneurship can be identi-
process of entrepreneurship as follows: fied: those who are pulled primarily because
they desire independence, and those who
Entrepreneurship is creating and build- are primarily pulled to entrepreneurship
ing something of value from practically because they want to increase their income
nothing; a human creative act. It involves as compared to, for instance, being an em-
finding personal energy by initiating and ployee. The remaining share includes peo-
building an enterprise or organisation, rath- ple who maintain that they have no other
er than by just watching, analyzing, or de- way of earning a living (necessity-motivated
scribing one. It requires vision and passion, entrepreneurs) and people who became in-
commitment, and motivation to transmit volved in entrepreneurial activity primarily
this vision to other stakeholders. to maintain their income.
This chapter investigates the challenges The Total Entrepreneurial Activity index
which government and other agencies face (TEA) for South Africa was 5.4% in 2004

3. Fostering entrepreneurship education in south africa 3
and this placed it in the 24th position out of seize and take advantage of opportunities,
the 34 countries in the GEM studies. This searching for and managing resources so as
is lower than the ETA of other developing to transform opportunities into successful
countries. However, the creation of new business”. This understanding describes
business should not be overemphasised as the entrepreneurs as a sophisticated per-
not all businesses which are created survive son and aptly supported by higher levels
and grow for them to contribute to national of thinking which only education can
economic development through wealth cre- provide.
ation. What the TEA index reveals is the
low level of creation of new enterprises in However, the later works of Filion (1991)
South Africa. For more entrepreneurs to be did not help much as describing the entre-
developed there is a need to deal with the preneur as a complexity animal. He takes a
three forces mentioned above which influ- system approach and looks at an entrepre-
ence entrepreneurial behaviour through ef- neur as, “...someone who imagines, develops
fective training interventions. and realizes visions”, a person who defines
contexts. From this underpinning emerged
This section explores the theories which the school of thought which looked at entre-
underpin entrepreneurial education and preneurial development as a process of pre-
development approaches necessary to deal paring someone to develop higher cognitive
with the complex personality of the entre- skills to be able to design contexts. Hence, it
preneur which if effective would lead to is argued that entrepreneurial education is
increased creation of new enterprises and important as it equips one with a feeling of
their growth. Education theories are used autonomy, independence or self confidence
here because there is a need to change the which are all important aspects in starting
attitude and out look of people in society a business.
for entrepreneurial activities to take place,
and has the potential to do this education Apparently, the apartheid educational
if done correctly. This is supported by the policies did not allow this to take place es-
Shay and Wood (2005) when they assert pecially amongst Africans. The legacy still
that, “The education system plays an im- seems to linger on thirteen years after the
portant role in developing entrepreneurial new political dispensation. The work of
skills and sharing attitudes in several ways”. Shay and Wood (2004) supports this when
they report that “The proportion of young
This is also supported in the work on the people in South Africa who believe they
concept of entrepreneur by Dolabela (2000) have the skills to start a new business is sig-
who define it as “ a state of being – a life- nificantly lower than that in other develop-
style, … a way of thinking, an orientation ing countries like Argentina etc.”
towards innovation and a capacity to pro-
duce changes in one self, the environment The various definitions point out the
and the means of seeking self actualization, complexity of an entrepreneur and the
including reaction patterns to ambiguities fact that entrepreneurship can be learned
and uncertainties”. and its development in a country like
South Africa can be supported. It is how
Other authors like Timmons (2004) and this learning is conducted and the nature
Shane (2005) have described an entrepre- of the support structures which will de-
neur as some one who is able to identify, termine impact made in the creation of

4. 4 Kachesa E Bbenkele and Alain A. Ndedi
entrepreneurship. The following section de- concerning what must be done to establish
velops entrepreneurship education. a new enterprise, and how to be successful
in developing an idea into a practical, goal-
Entrepreneurial Education oriented enterprise.
Entrepreneurship education seeks to pro- According to ODEP (2009), in order to
vide students with the knowledge, skills and be able to concentrate on the objectives of
motivation to encourage entrepreneurial entrepreneurship in the education system,
success in a variety of settings. A strategy for there are four factors that apply to all levels
entrepreneurship in education is a strategy to of the education system:
strengthen the individual’s ability to see and
exploit opportunities in an economic, so- 1. Entrepreneurship as an integrated part
cial and cultural context. Entrepreneurship of instruction: Entrepreneurship must be
in education includes development both defined as an objective in education, and
of personal qualities and attitudes and of be included in the instruction strategy.
formal knowledge and skills, together these
2. Collaboration with the local community:
two main elements will give pupils/students
Instruction in entrepreneurship requires
competence in entrepreneurship. Personal
close collaboration between schools
qualities and attitudes increase the prob-
and the local business and social sector.
ability of a person seeing opportunities and
There is therefore a need for more arenas
doing something about them. Work on en-
for contact between educational institu-
trepreneurship in education must primarily
tions and various players in society. In
place emphasis on development of personal
such arenas educational institutions and
qualities and attitudes. In that way a basis is
the local social and business sectors will
laid for later utilization of knowledge and
get to know one another better, and cul-
skills in active value creation. Knowledge
tural barriers may be dismantled.
and skills concerning what must be done to
establish a new enterprise, and how to be This will result in mutual benefit inas-
successful in developing an idea into a prac- much as it will increase the quality and
tical, goal-oriented enterprise. (European relevance of education and strengthen
Commission, 2006) recruitment to the local business sector
and development of competence.
Entrepreneurship in education includes
3. Teachers’ competence: Teachers are im-
development both of personal qualities
portant role models. A positive attitude
and attitudes and of formal knowledge and
among young people in schools toward
skills that will give students competence in
entrepreneurship, innovation and re-
entrepreneurship. Personal qualities and at-
orientation requires that teachers have
titudes increase the probability of a person
knowledge of this. It is therefore impor-
seeing opportunities and doing something
tant to focus on entrepreneurship in
to transform them into reality. Work on en-
teacher training, and also provide courses
trepreneurship in education must primarily
in competence development to working
place emphasis on development of personal
teachers.
qualities and attitudes. In that way a basis
is laid for later utilisation of knowledge 4. The attitudes of school-owners and
and skills in active value creation. (Ndedi school managers: School-owners must
and Ijeoma, 2008) Knowledge and skills follow up the focus on entrepreneurship

5. Fostering entrepreneurship education in south africa 5
in curricula and management docu- period of time, many graduates in all fields
ments, and build competence and in- of study were not trained in entrepreneur-
sight among school managers. ship. However, many universities are en-
gaged in various programmes dealing to fill
It is important that educational institu- this gap on training of potential entrepre-
tions are given legitimacy and motivation neurs. The courses included entrepreneur-
to work on entrepreneurship. School man- ship and small business management, inno-
agers must be able to follow up, encourage vation and creativity, opportunity recogni-
and motivate teachers to be good role mod- tion and business plans. These courses are
els and disseminators of knowledge. Both aimed in developing and unleashing gradu-
school-owners and school managers must ates’ expertise about entrepreneurship. As
take the initiative in collaborating with the it has always emphasized in the case of US,
business sector and other agencies in the the proliferation of entrepreneurs was as-
municipality. To successfully address un- sociated with the emergence of centres and
employment across youth people, certain higher education institutions specialised in
things need to be developed regarding the entrepreneurship.
training of potential entrepreneurs through
tertiary institutions. Entrepreneurship Henry, Hill and Leitch (2003: 12) point
education is a common course of study in out that entrepreneurship training can com-
higher education settings. A wide variety of plement the early stage awareness-raising
curricular approaches exist, though many function of entrepreneurship education,
common elements are found across institu- as it provides the more practical skills that
tions and settings. These texts and programs entrepreneurs require when they are ready
must be structured to introduce the concept to set up their business. Ladzani and Van
of entrepreneurship and provide hands-on Vuuren (2002: 156) state that organisations
experience and working models for students wishing to develop entrepreneurship educa-
to develop skills as entrepreneurs. The prin- tion presuppose that the lack of training of
ciples of entrepreneurship must be consid- entrepreneurs is the main reason for venture
ered valuable for students at all levels. failure. In the same line, Pretorius, Nieman
and Van Vuuren (2005: 424) add that the
In response to the rapidly changing na- transfer of the requisite knowledge and
tional landscape, not only of high unem- skills is the easiest part of training and is
ployment but more generally of economic incorporated in most training programmes
growth and job creation, entrepreneurship on entrepreneurship. However, the behav-
is being increasingly emphasized as a criti- iour to engage in the start-up process is what
cal resource. Timmons and Spinelli (2007) really matters and is what is lacking in most
recognise that there is no substitute for ac- entrepreneurship programmes.
tually starting a company, but it is possible
to expose students in all fields to many of In summary, Entrepreneurship educa-
the vital issues and immerse them in key tion seeks to prepare people, particularly
learning experiences through cases studies youth, to be responsible, enterprising indi-
of successful entrepreneurs. Concerning viduals who become entrepreneurs or en-
this point on students’ capacity building in trepreneurial thinkers by immersing them
entrepreneurship, a multi-sectoriel policy, in real life learning experiences where they
going from higher education institutions can take risks, manage the results, and learn
to centres of training, is needed. For a long from the outcomes (ODEP, 2009)

6. 6 Kachesa E Bbenkele and Alain A. Ndedi
DATA AND METHODOLOGY presented and a suggestion made on a pos-
sible new approach.
The approach used to collect data for the
paper was two fold; first desk research was Crucial activities for entrepreneurial
conducted on selected work both local and development
international in the area of entrepreneurial
education. This was done to select a best Before the various models are presented, a
practice in education programmes aimed at useful scenario to use in reviewing entrepre-
developing entrepreneurs. neurial education programmes is suggested
by Janssen, Eeckhout and Gailly (2007).
Review of critiques on the current train- They use the model developed by Fayolle
ing programmes in entrepreneurial educa- (1999) model which identifies three critical
tion was also conducted especially in the new areas or stages crucial for entrepreneurial
venture creation programme. Documents development. These are identified as;
from the department of labour were also
a. Mobilization programmes aimed at devel-
used as a good resource to identify the work
oping the entrepreneurial spirit among
being done by the Sector Education Training
budding entrepreneurs in society.
Authorities and other government agencies.
As expected, this source of information was b. Entrepreneurial training programmes
not very good in identifying problems faced which aim at moulding intending en-
so far as it was not critical. trepreneurs for the needed change in
entrepreneurial attitude and aptitude to
The second source of information was establish new ventures or develop new
information collected from empirical inves- ways of creating additional wealth in
tigations on the impact made by the various existing businesses. This is done mainly
SETAs in supporting small, medium and through educational programmes aimed
micro enterprises (SME) levy payers in skills at giving students skills and entrepre-
development. The SETAs are not identified neurial abilities.
but whatever is mentioned is common to
c. Entrepreneurial support programmes
many of them.
(ESPs) tend to select students who already
have a business opportunity to exploit
In addition to the information from
and aim at giving personal assistance and
SETAs, data is also used from impact assess-
advice to exploit the opportunity.
ment studies conducted for the Department
of Trade and Industry and Department of This scenario is a useful typology for
Science and Technology. developing entrepreneurship educational
programmes. However, their effectiveness
in South Africa requires that attention be
RESULTS emphasised to rekindle the needed entrepre-
neurial spirit, killed by apartheid policies es-
This section first presents the interesting pecially among blacks, which did not allow
models which have been suggested in de- blacks to owning and running businesses.
veloping entrepreneurship and an analy-
sis is made on how useful these could be As a result of the historical past, Shay
to South Africa. The current approaches and Wood (2005) propose that the low rate
in entrepreneurial development are then of entrepreneurial activity in South Africa

7. Fostering entrepreneurship education in south africa 7
is due to most South Africans not having a and implemented in the early stages of the
“…belief in their own ability to start a busi- entrepreneurial development process. If
ness…”. At this stage, it is suggested that ed- this is not done a lot of students will be tak-
ucational programmes would need to open en on board and will be eliminated in the
and change mindsets for students by provid- later stages. If selection happens in the early
ing an environment where successful entre- stages, it will save resources as efforts will be
preneurs receive wide recognition as is the concentrated on people who want to take
present case of Mr. Richard Maphonya2 with the entrepreneurial route. Further, support
his opening of the largest shopping centre in would be concentrated on these.
the southern hemisphere based in Soweto.
The above suggests the need of consider-
Davies (2004) concludes that “profes- able efforts aimed at changing the attitude
sional or corporate careers are generally of society toward entrepreneurship and
held in greater esteem than business own- this is an aspect that can only be effectively
ership”. This emphasizes the importance of changed through the proper positioning of
the first stage of mobilizing entrepreneur- entrepreneurial development modules at
ship in South Africa. all educational levels in South Africa. The
model we propose in sections below will
The second stage requirement is partly deal with these aspects
explained from the conclusion made by
Davies (2004) above. This suggests that Interesting international
entrepreneurial training programmes es- entrepreneurial education models
pecially in educational institutions should
be strong enough to make students have The first model presented in this paper
dreams of owning businesses as opposed to posits that the most useful way of providing
being employed. Currently there is a ten- entrepreneurial education is to build indi-
dency for many faculties especially in the viduals who are able to “dream and organize
sciences at universities to embrace this view themselves to make their dreams come true”,
and hence not support the introduction (Filion and Dolabela (2007). The process in-
of entrepreneurship skills training in their volves fundamental approaches necessary to
programmes. transform societal norms for entrepreneur-
ial development for members of society to
Further, where some education institu- portray autistic behaviours related to having
tions have entrepreneurships departments, a collective, structuring and activity dreams
these have tended to attract students with (see Filion and Dolabela (2007)).
low matric scores and these departments are
seen as departments of last resort. There is In terms of classroom pedagogy students
a need to effectively position entrepreneur- are asked two questions: What is your dream
ship programmes in a number of universities in terms of what you want to become? What
in South Africa. This would suggest offering is your project to make this dream come
unique programmes in building entrepre- true? The entrepreneurial pedagogy meth-
neurs and not placing so much emphasis on odology (EPM) is suggested by Filion and
numbers for the programmes to be offered. Dolabela (2007, 24).
The third point is that the identification This model would be useful in the de-
of students should be a deliberate process velopment of an entrepreneurial mindset

8. 8 Kachesa E Bbenkele and Alain A. Ndedi
starting from primary schools to higher Role of Sector Education Training
institutions of learning. This approach Authorities
would revolutionalize the way entrepre-
neurship is taught and would make stu- Entrepreneurship education in South Africa
dents choose entrepreneurial careers as at- has a number of players including all levels
tractive as opposed to the low risk profes- of education institutions. In particular the
sional paths. This would be the beginning government has attempted to readdress
of developing an entrepreneurial spirit in the low levels of entrepreneurship in the
South Africa. country by introducing entrepreneurship
to form part of Economic Management
Another useful way of thinking of edu- Sciences from grades three up to 9 in pri-
cational programmes is the need for an mary schools.
interdisciplinary approach in the entrepre-
neurial programmes suggested by Janssen Shay and Wood (2005) report three
et al (2007). Many universities education problems in teaching entrepreneurship
providers have used the multi disciplinary programmes in schools. The first prob-
approach where several disciplines are com- lem relates to apathy and as a result many
bined to broaden the scope of learners. On schools do not include entrepreneurship
the contrary, the interdisciplinary pedagogy in their curricula. Secondly, they point out
involves the opposite; it integrates disci- that there is a paucity of suitable teachers
plines. This is supported in the early works who can teach entrepreneurship. It seems
of Petrie (1992) and Campbell (1969) when that entrepreneurship is regarded as an un-
they argued that “…any interdisciplinary ap- important teaching subject and not sought
proach has to rely upon the disciplines in after by students doing teacher training.
order to ground its credibility”. The last problem is that materials are not
available in many of the primary schools es-
This model uses the principles of integra- pecially those in the rural areas.
tion, collaboration and synthesis which em-
phasizes teacher, leaner, knowledge and pro- The importance of the principles of inte-
cesses pedagogy propounded by Houssaye gration: teacher, leaner, knowledge and pro-
(1993) to assist in developing entrepreneur- cesses are put to test in the South African
ship. This provides a better approach as it education system. In particular the pro-
considers the methodology used more than cesses in managing the system would need
the content. serious considerations for education to be
an effective vehicle for the cultivation of an
The significance of this approach in entrepreneurial spirit among the youth in
South Africa is important as a lot of ef- South Africa.
forts have been given to the development
of entrepreneurial programmes like the new Other important players in entrepre-
venture creation programme. However, this neurship education are universities, South
has not been very successful as the processes African Institute for Entrepreneurship and
have been weak in the areas of the “doing as- the Foundation for Enterprise and Business
pect”, the after care aspects during the busi- Development. In the GEM report of 2005,
ness management and improvement stages these business venture programmes are fa-
and the processes usually poorly managed. vourably reviewed.

9. Fostering entrepreneurship education in south africa 9
The larger challenge of skills training in Further, many SETAs have identified the
South Africa rests with the SETAs. The ac- support of small and medium enterprise
cepted role of SETAs is not usually seen as levy payers as an important target group to
support developing entrepreneurship but to assist in skills transfers. Again the common
address the skills problems inherited from thinking is the technical skills for workers
the apartheid regime. It is only through the and not entrepreneurial skills.
new venture creation learnerships that en-
trepreneurial training is seen to be sported Table 1 above shows the typical training
by the SETAs. Further, the SETAs support programmes in one of the SETAs. What
the SME levy payers to transfer shills but is prominent to note is the wide range of
little, if any, entrepreneurial development is programmes offered. This paper argues
seems to be done. that entrepreneurial education should be
underpinned in the learnerships and the
The National Skills Development structured learning programmes offered by
Strategy (NSDS) was drafted by the SETAs. To some extent new venture cre-
Department of Labour to guide the efforts ation has been used by the SETAs on a pilot
of government in addressing the human basis with no encouraging results and yet
resource capacity problems inherited from the Global Enterprise Monitor reports suc-
the apartheid regime. The mission of the cess in the new venture programmes used at
NSDS is, schools developed by SAIE and FEBDEV.
“To equip South Africa (ns) with the skills In terms of challenges faced in implement-
to succeed in the global market and to of- ing the skills development programmes, the
fer opportunities to individuals and com- results show a number of issues raised as fol-
munities for self-advancement to enable lows below.
them to play a productive role in society”.
This entails that people in places of work • Forty two percent saw no challenges in
contribute to and make their own deci- implementing skills development pro-
sions about their place of work. This in grammes
essence should be regarded as building in-
• Fifteen percent mention cost factors as
trapreneurship and entrepreneurs within
an impediment. These costs related to
South African companies.
training staff who would then leave the
firm or become too expensive to retain;
This paper posits that the SETAs have
too small to do training (time) and to
tended to regard skills training to mean
bear the administrative burdens.
technical training for workers. This blurs
their focus as being facilitators to make • With industry manuals not available,
South African enterprises be more pro- firms are not sure of courses to put staff
ductive and being more competitive in the on. It was also pointed that some of the
global village. This would not happen if the unit standards are not applicable to the
entrepreneurs do not receive the appropri- industry. (11%)
ate receive inappropriate to start, maintain
and grow their enterprises. Entrepreneurial • The third problem was mentioned by
education should be encouraged and open- 9% of the firms who felt that the bad
ly supported by SETAs. communication with the SETA made it

10. 10 Kachesa E Bbenkele and Alain A. Ndedi
Table 1 Common Skills Programmes offered
Work Skills Programme Learnerships Structured Learning
General skills General skills General skills
Sales training TTI programme Management & strategic
management courses
Supply chain management Sales training Book keeping and financial
management
Customer service General travel and business HR, LLB, B. Com
travel
Induction training Performance management Induction courses
Telephone techniques Process skills In all functional areas, IT,
Excel etc
Security Computer training Presentation skills
Policies and procedures training Health and occupation and Customer care, business
safety awareness
Industrial relations and HIV/AIDS awareness ABET
supervisory skills
Health and safety and HIV/AIDS Management development
courses, industrial relations
Motivational training Supervisory training
Specific skills Specific skills Specific skills
Accommodation services Chef and customer care Waiter programmes
provision and house keeping
Food preparation and front office Waiter training Semi skilled kitchen course
Waiter training Technical training in Hotel management, cooking
cookery, Hospitality, Food,
drink and Beverage services
Computerised reservation systems Accommodation services Tourism courses
like Galileo, Amadeus
Specific product training Occupational Health and
Safety
Green keeping, technical Child minding
Driving
difficult to know areas to target for skills Other issues which emerge as challenges in-
development. clude the following:
• Seven percent reported that trainees in • The level of structured industry training
cases are not interested to be trained is low in South Africa as compared to the
other trading partners
• Six percent mentioned problems of
company culture, impact of HIV/AIDS, • Expenditure on skills development in
lack of management support, organiza- the critical sectors, which promise future
tional demands and cultural issues as growth and employment, is low, especial-
problems. ly among the SMEs.

11. Fostering entrepreneurship education in south africa 11
• In most industries training has remained programmes. Without this, phase two be-
very informal and at a very superficial comes a problem to implement. All skills
level, with most lower level workers not development efforts by levy payers, includ-
empowered. This trend will need to be ing government departments, need to im-
addressed as it perpetuates the apartheid plement ABET as the first priority. SETAs
legacy. have a role to play in this regard and their
efforts should be continued and enhanced.
• There is a failure by many companies
especially SMEs to recognize the impor-
Further, the role of mobilization will
tance of training within the immediate
have to be performed by the SETAs to en-
and external environment for training
sure that the right entrepreneurial mindset
to be integrated in company strategic
is created among levy payers. Most impor-
objectives.
tant is to re position the support to levy pay-
• There is a shortage of high quality man- ers to give prominence to entrepreneurial
agement skills transfer as opposed to technical skills
training offered to workers only.
• Skills development programmes do not
seem to be demand driven, i.e. taking
To support the SETAs, the education
place within a job related framework
system at all levels needs to be supported so
• Some of the training programmes are ill that entrepreneurial education receives the
conceived and too short for the desired desired status for materials to be supplied
impact and teachers trained as content and process
managers. Later, we shall argue for partner-
• Entrepreneurial training has always been
ships to be established between SETAs and
sacrificed for technical training
educational institutions including public
• Women and the physically challenged and private; a strategy which is long over due.
continue to be marginalized. This will require that the SETAs operate in
an effective business manner in this part-
Mobilization: Developing culture of nership. The current problems identified
dreamers and using entrepreneurship in terms of capacity and operational prob-
to meet dreams. lems need to be ironed out (Department of
Labour (2006)).
The first stage involves the creation of the
right mind set for the development of en- From being dreamers to visioning
trepreneurship in South Africa. We call this the dreams
the ontology stage in that it aims at defin-
ing the desired state of being by members The second phase is more concerned with
of society. This will involve developing the epistemology, that is, the content of impart-
entrepreneurial dreams and defining how ing entrepreneurial skills through the use
these will be achieved through well articu- of appropriate methodologies. Two revolu-
lated entrepreneurial activities. tionary methodologies are suggested, first
the integration paradigm and the EPM. If
This stage will also require the cultiva- these methodologies are recommended the
tion of fertile ground for the development educational institutions and SETAs through
of entrepreneurs through conceited Adult learnerships, skills to support behaviour for
Basic Education and Training (ABET) dream realization, support knowledge pillars

12. 12 Kachesa E Bbenkele and Alain A. Ndedi
erected from various disciplines to mould interventions, they were left alone and could
the entrepreneurial students to be able to not consult any one when problems arose
know what to do and learn through doing and in most situations this made them to
thereby being able to hoard experience. revert back to the old way of doing things.
The SETA learnerships are best suited It is recommended that the SETAs
for this stage and the suggested role is for closely work with other government agen-
them to move closer and partner with levy cies for an effective roll out of entrepre-
payers for market driven learnerships to be neurial support services. These govern-
implemented. Most importantly, epistemol- ment agencies would include the Small
ogy would suggest that attention be paid to Enterprise Development Agency, Khula
the trainers, selection of learners, providing and the South Micro Finance Fund, the
the right knowledge and being able to man- Industrial Development Agency, National
age the process. This is a big challenge for Empowerment Fund, Umusobomvu Youth
the SETAs and effective strategies are need- Fund, the local government economic de-
ed through joint design processes where a velopment agencies like Gauteng Enter-
few selected partners are used for consulta- prise Propeller, Ethekwini Local Business
tions to develop process that will work. Development Service Agency etc.
Continued effective support services
for entrepreneurs SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The above stages point out that entrepre- Recommendations
neurship can be learned and useful meth-
ods are needed and these are suggested. The Therefore, the real challenge is to build
tendency of government departments to inter-disciplinary approaches, making en-
stick to old methods of doing things is a far trepreneurship education accessible to all
cry for needed social intrapreneurship. This students, and where appropriate creating
will entail that government officers be inno- teams for the development and exploitation
vate to find new and better ways of meeting of business ideas, mixing students from eco-
their noble objectives, in this case develop- nomic and business studies with students
ing entrepreneurs in South Africa. from other faculties and with different
backgrounds.
This stage posits that the new entrepre-
neurial “animal” should not be left alone Innovation and effectiveness stem pri-
in a hostile business environment. There marily from action-oriented and student-
is a need of support services in access to inclusive teaching forms, teaching students
finance for short, medium and long term “how to” so that they can understand the
capital gearing, technology transfer to im- more theoretical aspects more easily, in-
prove quality of products, market linkages volving students heavily and actively in the
and development to tap bigger and better learning process, and involving “outsiders”
local and export markets and the continued in the learning process. The people doing
coaching and counselling to ensue that the the teaching should be to some extent en-
acquired knowledge achieves grounded in- trepreneurs themselves, building their input
tegrity. Many times, learners have reported on real-life experience. Crossing the bound-
that after effective SETA supported training ary of the university and the world outside

13. Fostering entrepreneurship education in south africa 13
is one of the reasons why such teaching is to economic development. Most of
often experienced by the students as very these countries still face unemployment
different from the traditional teaching expe- problems.
rience in higher education.
This study has explored the nature of en-
Professors should have a background in trepreneurial development by first looking at
academia, and recent experience in busi- the complexity of the unit of analysis entre-
ness, such as in consulting for, or initiat- preneurship. This complexity on the nature
ing, entrepreneurial initiatives. Ideally they of things to be done in entrepreneurships
should maintain strong personal links with has suggested the need for well designed en-
the business sector. The best professors are trepreneurial development efforts.
teachers who have the required teaching
competences as well as real professional An appropriate scheme of what needs
experience in the private sector. For those to be done has been suggested in terms of
with no experience in the private sector, cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit pro-
specific teaching modules should be inte- viding training and concentrating efforts
grated into the curriculum of future profes- on supporting the growth of the new ven-
sors, such as “How to devise and teach a tures. Most appropriate institutions and
case study”. what needs to be concentrated on have
been identified in the suggested model. In
Supporting students’ business ideas universities, courses in entrepreneurship
must be implemented at all levels and in
A distinction needs to be made between all fields. The course “entrepreneurship”
awareness raising and education, and ac- focusing on the management of creativ-
tual business support. This Report focuses ity and innovation develops the nature of
primarily on building awareness and on creativity and innovation, and how entre-
offering education programmes, courses preneurship involves the ability to iden-
and activities. The emphasis is on creating tify market opportunity based on new
the entrepreneurial mindsets and capacity. ideas. The course may assist the student
Support for university spin-offs is a vast and to recognise any opportunity around him.
complex issue, for which a specific Expert However, the course on Entrepreneurship
Group would need to be created. Moreover, and New Venture Creation are intended
the concept of innovative spin-offs is not to build personal appreciation for the chal-
particularly relevant for businesses started lenges and rewards of entrepreneurship;
by students, who do not have formal links and to foster continued development of
with the university. It seems therefore more venture ideas, suitable as career entry op-
appropriate to speak of innovative, knowl- tions or for investments. (Löwegren, 2006)
edge-based businesses launched by students A social sciences or engineering student
and university graduates. Such students needs the same entrepreneurial skills that
would benefit from dedicated advisory and the business student; the same with the
support programmes. medical doctor student. A business plan
is needed to open a clinic or a law firm.
Efforts of increasing entrepreneurial ac- An opportunity recognition is not there for
tivity in most African developed countries only business students, but to all those who
have not used appropriate methods to re- are willing to embark in any entrepreneur-
alize the contribution of entrepreneurship ial activities.

14. 14 Kachesa E Bbenkele and Alain A. Ndedi
This chapter concludes that South Davies, T (2004), Developing a nation of
Africa has established well intentioned entrepreneurs: The Venture Creation
government departments and agencies. Learnership Model, Research Monograph
Series, Book 1, NASRA and Services SETA.
However, very little coordination has
taken place and worse is the fact that en- De Vries, K (1997): The Entrepreneurial
trepreneurial development has been over- personality: a person at the crossroads,
shadowed by skills developed. If the skills Journal of Management Studies,
Volume/Issue 14; 1 page 36.
development programmes had succeeded
in the first phase of the National Skills European Commission. (2006). Fostering
Development Plan, South Africa would Entrepreneurial Mindsets through Education and
have a cadre of highly skilled people with Learning. Oslo, 26 - 27 October 2006 Final
proceedings.
few people to drive the enterprises.
European Commission Enterprise and Industry
This study concludes that the SETAs (ECEI). 2008. Entrepreneurship in higher
need to re-examine their role to take up education, especially within non-business
studies Final Report of the Expert Group
the challenge of developing entrepreneurs
Enterprise and Industry. March 2008.
and collaborating with other government Promotion of SMEs competitiveness
departments to provide the needed support
services. The erection of Silos around gov- Filion, L (1991), Visions and relations:
elements of an entrepreneurial metamodel,
ernment departments has done more harm
International Small Business Journal, 9 (2),
than good for entrepreneurs. 26-40.
A model has been suggested for an inte- Filion, L and Dolabela, F (2007), the making
of a revolution in Brazil; the introduction of
grated approach to be used by government
entrepreneurial pedagogy in early stages of
at each of the stages. For this model to work education,: In Fayolle, A (2007) Ed, Handbook
a coordinating committee has to be estab- of research in entrepreneurship education,
lished to ensure alignment of programmes volume 2, Edward Edgar Publishing, UK
to reduce duplication.
Henry, C., Hill, F. and Leitch, C. (2003)
Entrepreneurship Education and Training.
Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing
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