Inkululeko's Business Skills Course Concludes
On September 18, the Business Skills Course, funded by the U.S. Consulate in Cape Town, for 2022-2023 concluded with a wrap-up meeting led by Inkululeko’s Makhanda, South Africa based General Manager Julian Barker.
South Africa currently has one of the highest unemployment rates on the globe, at 32.6%, according to Statistics South Africa. Amidst this, youth unemployment remains devastatingly high, with 66.5% of 15-24 year olds unemployed in Q3 2022. Courses like Inkululeko’s Business Skills Course aim to educate learners on alternative career pathways in an economy where employment in the formal sector is extremely hard to come by.
Our program also aims to bring South Africans and Americans together. Gabe Khan, an SU alumni student in the Renée Crown Honors Program worked with Inkululeko to draft the original curriculum with several others and received feedback from the facilitators of the course through Julian Barker and Zuko Gqadavama, Inkululeko’s Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research coordinator.
Over his time working with Inkululeko, Julian, Jason, and Zuko gave Gabe and his team the general idea of the course, but granted them the liberty to create the content and structure as they thought would create the most impact.
"I think most of our decisions about the course took a balance of teaching the students new concepts that would impact their community, but also keeping it interactive and fun," said Khan.
In developing the curriculum for the BSC, Khan learned more about how Makhanda's community functions, and how the businesses learners developed can contribute to a green ecosystem. "After the meeting this week, I feel like our course was a success. The projects Nosi (an Inkululeko staff member) described were creative and designed to keep business within their community and reduce waste."
In 2023, we started with 48 learners with one teacher in each group. Inkululeko hosted a day for facilitators from each school to meet. Over the course of the year, facilitator Nosipiwo Dosi learned more about the curriculum, and how it could be revised to better fit the local context of South Africa.
Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant Ludwig Chanyau also assisted in making the green economy more understandable for the learners. The microloans have been distributed, and some businesses have started. Learners are expected to pay back these loans.
Along with coursework and training, learners went on outings as well. One outing in particular had a strong impact on the learners. They visited a local ginger beer business run by a man who uses recycled and reused bottles. He started from scratch, with only 20 rands and ingredients he had received from his grandmother. After hearing about this man’s story and success, learners further understood the importance of keeping their environments clean. Following the experience, students reflected to facilitators that they had started picking up more often in their homes and communities.
Abenathi Manengele, from our partner organization, Awarenet, shared that learners furthered their understanding of the effect of recycling, the importance of sustainability, and maintaining resources. The learners use sustainable packaging, and some of the equipment they use is sustainable as well. Both Nosi and Abenathi have noted that they feel there needs to be more content and time allocated to the Sustainability and Budget Building topics. Additionally, Nosi expressed the feeling that the learners need to be provided with more guidance through each step of the course.
Zintle Vambe, another member from Awarenet, suggested that we invest more into training for the green economy workshop, as she feels the concept is still complicated. She mentioned that learners started with their own ideas, and were mainly mentored on the sustainability aspect of their business ideas. All businesses implemented by learners are selling items that would improve the experience of learners at school and people in the community. Furthermore, having businesses right in the community provides easier access to these items as they don’t have to spend on transportation.
The Business Skills Course conducted by Inkululeko with funding from the U.S. Consulate in Cape Town has proven to be an impactful program for youth in Makhanda, South Africa. By providing hands-on business training and microloans, the course equipped learners with entrepreneurial skills and mindsets needed to start their own sustainable businesses, addressing high unemployment rates.
The curriculum co-created by American and South African collaborators ensured local relevance. Through site visits, learners also gained inspiration and knowledge about operating eco-friendly businesses using recycled materials.
With its dual goals of fostering cross-cultural collaboration and empowering young entrepreneurs, the Inkululeko Business Skills Course serves as a model for impactful youth training programs.