Budding tech and creative entrepreneurs are urged to apply for township entrepreneurship programme
|Published
Johannesburg - In 2019, the Cav’ Townships project, in partnership with Emzingo, developed a Business Toolkit targeted at entrepreneurs with creative and/or tech-enabled ideas eg. photography, animation, VR/AR, gaming, etc.
This toolkit is meant to support creatives in understanding early-stage entrepreneurship and accessing incubation support.
In 2021, the Cav’ Townships Pusha Entrepreneurship Programme project embarked on a programme to train 80 creative entrepreneurs in four cohorts of 20 participants each, between May and September, using the Business Toolkit.
The project was extended to include a fifth cohort in 2021.
In 2022, the project will look to recruit participants for four more cohorts of 20 participants each.
The Cav’ Townships Pusha Entrepreneurship Programme is currently recruiting for its eighth cohort, and youth aged 18-35 who are involved in the creative industry in townships, particularly women and establishments and initiatives that are involved in this creative industry, are encouraged to apply.
The closing date for applications is Sunday, 26 June 2022, and the training programme commences on 25 July 2022.
The objective of the project is to develop and then implement formats for the development of professional perspectives and income generation in the creative space.
Project Manager for the Cav’ Townships Pusha Entrepreneurship Programme Lot Kafesu highlighted the importance of the project in helping young entrepreneurs gain the skills needed to establish successful entrepreneurial ventures.
“We are focusing on young township-based creatives to be trained as entrepreneurs to be sustainable. The goal is to help generate income through entrepreneurship and employment,” he said.
The project is run in partnership with township business development hubs. eKasiLabs, which is an extension of the Innovation Hub, is one such partner.
The other is The Wot-If Trust in Dieplsoot, which provides enabling platforms, programmes and spaces for the creation of sustainable opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Mentorship and training will all take place on the Entreprenerdy/Cav’ Townships white label platform designed for the Business Toolkit training.
Entreprenerdy is an entrepreneurship support platform where the Business Toolkit will be hosted and delivered to each cohort in 21 days of training.
Each participant will receive a stipend to implement small resilience measures in their business based on guidance from their mentors. These may include registering the business, establishing an online presence, purchasing data/internet for marketing and sales, or creating a small prototype.
To achieve fairness and transparency in the participant selection process, a three-member jury has been appointed to set criteria and select successful participants.
The 8-week timeline for the recruitment and running of each cohort will be as follows:
Week 1-3
Partner hubs run a recruitment programme within their communities. Candidates apply on goethe.entreprenerdy.com until a set deadline. The application form asks business idea-specific questions according to set criteria for selection.
Week 4
The jury selects 20 participants from all applications for a particular cohort, according to set criteria. Communication is sent out to successful participants, including contracts and schedules.
Week 5
Entreprenerdy trains and certifies participating mentors on platform use and Business Toolkit methodology to enable them to better support entrepreneurs.
Week 6-8
The 21-day Business Toolkit training programme is delivered through the facilitation of Entreprenerdy. Training takes place on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Mentorship will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays on the Entreprenerdy platform as well as on Zoom. The programme moderator will, during this time, facilitate and lead mentorship, coordinate training, and ensure quality delivery of the programme.
Pitching Day
All entrepreneurs, mentors, and the jury will convene at a physical venue (GI/Participating hub) for a day of pitching after the training programme. Entrepreneurs will pitch their businesses incorporating tools and learnings of the 21-day training for a place in the Ekasi Labs incubation programme.
The Cav’ Township project is part of the Global Project, which is a cultural and creative industries project implemented by the Goethe-Institut and the GIZ (DeutscheGesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) on behalf of the German Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation with the aim of promoting the emerging market of cultural and creative industries in Africa and the Middle East.
Interested candidates can apply here.
IOL BUSINESS