Journal of Research in International Business and Management

Entrepreneurship education and training in South African universities

Received: 20-Jul-2020 Published: 22-Sep-2020

Case Study

Over the last 20 years, entrepreneurship education and training (EET) programs have mushroomed, given their promise and potential to promote entrepreneurial skills and attitudes. While the number of such programs continues to expand worldwide, global knowledge about these programs’ impact remains thin (Valerio, Parton, and Robb, 2014). According to Egolum and Chukwuma (2013), some countries, like Nigeria and Kenya have tried to tackle this problem by equipping children with entrepreneurial skills while they’re still at school. This equips children with essential foundational knowledge and skills such as emotional intelligence and risk taking; it also develops their appreciation for self-employment opportunities. This means that when such children find themselves in a situation where they are unemployed, they don’t give up and succumb to self-pity. Within the context of graduate for South Africa and many other countries to introduce Entrepreneurship Education and Training as a vehicle/catalyst to address the scourge of unemployment in many countries in the world Urgency. and youth unemployment, the resources available in the universities and schools, the South African drive for Small and Medium Enterprises, the situation has driven Entrepreneurship education could be used to prepare individuals for their entrepreneurial career by making entrepreneurship attractive and equipping students with knowledge, skills and competencies required for starting, managing and growing their own businesses (Malebana, 2016). South Africa has already made inroads into the field of entrepreneurship education and training albeit with a lack of proper co-ordination, focused national policy to give directive to schools and universities on how to implement this new phenomena. Various universities and TVET colleges have various levels of this type of training already in existence. However, there is a need for a strong drive from the government, universities, schools and ordinary citizens to institutionalize entrepreneurship education and training in the South African higher education system and in the basic education system