In 2019 the Cav Townships initiative in collaboration with Emzingo created a business toolkit for entrepreneurs with innovative and/or tech-enabled concepts, such as those in the fields of photography, animation, VR/AR, gaming, etc. The goal of this toolkit is to aid creatives in their understanding of early-stage entrepreneurship and their ability to get incubation help.
80 innovative entrepreneurs were trained to utilize the Business Toolkit in four cohorts of 20 participants each between May and September as part of the Cav’ Townships Pusha Entrepreneurship Programme project, which was launched in 2021. In 2021, the project was expanded to accommodate the fifth cohort. Four additional cohorts of 20 volunteers each will be sought for by the project in 2022.
For its eighth cohort, the Cav’ Townships Pusha Entrepreneurship Programme is presently accepting applications from youth ages 18 to 35 who work in the township’s creative sector, especially women and establishments and initiatives that are engaged in this sector. The application period closes on Sunday, June 26, 2022, and the training program starts on July 25, 2022. The project’s goal is to create forms for the growth of professional perspectives and revenue creation in the creative sector, which will subsequently be put into practice.
Lot Kafesu, the project manager for the Cav’ Townships Pusha Entrepreneurship Programme, emphasized the significance of the program in assisting young entrepreneurs in acquiring the skills necessary to build prosperous entrepreneurial companies.“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. Township business development hubs are involved in the project’s administration. One such partner is eKasiLabs, a division of the Innovation Hub.
The Wot-If Trust in Dieplsoot is another; it offers venues, programs, and enabling platforms for the development of sustainable business potential. The Entrepreneury/Cav’ Townships white-label platform created for the Business Toolkit training will be used for both mentoring and training. The Business Toolkit will be made available to each cohort in a 21-day training period through the entrepreneurship assistance website Entreprenerdy.
Each participant will receive a stipend to adopt modest resilience measures in their businesses. These could include things like opening an online store, buying data on the internet for marketing and sales, or building a simple prototype. A three-member jury has been chosen to establish criteria and choose successful participants in order to ensure justice and transparency in the participant selection process.
The 8-week timeline for the recruitment and running of each cohort will be as follows:
Week 1-3
Partner hubs execute a recruitment campaign in local neighborhoods. Before a deadline, candidates submit applications on goethe.entreprenerdy.com. According to predetermined selection criteria, the application form includes questions that are particular to business ideas.
Week 4
According to pre – determined criteria, the jury chooses 20 applicants from among all submissions for a given cohort. Successful participants get communication, including contracts and timetables.
Week 5
To enable them to provide greater help to entrepreneurs, Entreprenerdy trains and accredits participating mentors in the use of the platform and the Business Toolkit approach.
Week 6-8
The delivery of the 21-day Business Toolkit training program is handled by Entrepreneury’s facilitation. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, training is held. Tuesdays and Thursdays will see mentoring sessions on Zoom and the Entreprenerdy platform. During this period, the mentorship will be facilitated and led by the program moderator, who will also oversee training and ensure the program is delivered in a professional manner.
Day of Pitches
After the training session, all entrepreneurs, mentors, and the jury will gather at a physical location (GI/Participating hub) for a day of pitching. For a spot in the Ekasi Labs incubation program, entrepreneurs will present their firms using the skills and lessons learned over the 21-day course.
The Global Project, a cultural and creative industries initiative run by the Goethe-Institut and the GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) on behalf of the German Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation with the goal of fostering the development of the cultural and creative industries in Africa and the Middle East, includes the Cav’ Township project.
Also Read: University of Pretoria opens center for the future
Cav townships pusha entrepreneurship programme
