Denis Opudo
Many scholars in Africa do not consider entrepreneurship as one of the best carriers. They rather take it as the last option in order to salvage their careers. Many organizations have started up initiatives instilling entrepreneurship interest in scholars. For instance, the Simama Ranta School Entrepreneurship Education Competition is a South African competition that helps in encouraging scholars to take entrepreneurship as a career. Furthermore, the competition celebrates South African schools exemplary performance in entrepreneurship education.
The completion is usually held annually and is organized by Eskom Development Foundation. The foundation does that through a partnership with the Education With Enterprise Trust (EWET). The 2017 competition saw Birdswood High School became the provincial winner. The school won the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) provincial category. It took home a prize of R 50,00. The second prize of R 25,000 went to Aquedene Secondary School. Ikhandlela Secondary School came third in the competition and was awarded a prize of R 10,000.
The event was held to recognize of the province’s youth and their role in socio-economic development. It was also meant to instill a culture of entrepreneurship among scholars. Birdswood High School developed an outstanding media service rendering an electronic tourism facility. The service gets tourists to tour the province, the country, and whole world. It does that in a period of two hours using modern technology. The school has professional tour guides. The tour guides have a role of taking the tourists through the attractions.
The school has a total of 80 guests. Furthermore, it helps learners to access the internet and offers companies a conference facility. The school has helped the learners to convert the theory learned in subjects like Tourism and Accounting into practical. This is according to Youth Employment Service (YES) Advisor at the school Mr. Dudu Mngadi. The competition helps in boosting the student’s self-esteem. Furthermore, it hastens their problem-solving skills. This makes them be in a better place in solving the customer’s real problems.
