Step up to business

These were the words of Minister of Small Business Development, Lindiwe Zulu at the entrepreneurship programme, Step Up 2 A Start Up awards ceremony. The awards ceremony recognised pupils from schools all over South Africa for their innovation and entrepreneurial skills.

The minister, in her keynote address, encouraged pupils to pursue education first and take full advantage of the opportunities made possible by the government, their parents and initiatives such as Step Up.

Also present at the ceremony was Martin Sweet, managing director of Primestars Marketing, who stressed the importance of encouraging young people to pursue entrepreneurship.

“If we are to succeed in fostering entrepreneurship in South Africa, we must present it as a viable option at school level, alongside other career choices,” he said.

“We aim to encourage and support innovation, sharing and collaboration, and the creation of ideas and designs that could help revitalise thinking about how to produce things.”

Also speaking at the awards, National Youth Development Agency executive chairperson, Yershen Pillay said young people could not “become self-sustaining entrepreneurs without the necessary guidance, skills and education which they can now access before even leaving school through the Step Up 2 A Start Up initiative”.

He added that the agency was tremendously proud of being a key sponsor of this great initiative as one of the key functions of the agency was to facilitate youth development within all sectors of society.

The initiative was aimed at assisting in the stimulation of an entrepreneurial culture in South Africa, through which employment and wealth could be created.