With the recent announcement of the findings of Census 2011 by Statistics SA, a spotlight has once again been put on South Africa’s unemployed population which according to the report is 41.3 percent, and students make up 42.3 percent of the unemployed. With a national unemployment rate of 25.5 percent, one can only hope that a vast change in the culture in which the youth dream of becoming employees as oppose to employers drastically changes before we see our country slip further into the economic winter which has plagued South Africa for years.   

With Free State demonstrating the highest unemployment rate in the country at 32 percent, Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) hopes to change the mindset of its future workforce by equipping learners with the tools needed to succeed in building successful businesses. CUT offer relevant courses as part of the School of Entrepreneurship and Business Development.   A starting point lies within the primary, secondary and tertiary schooling sectors which have the most influence in rearing our future entrepreneurial minds. CUT challenges these institutions to offer courses and workshops similar to the Entrepreneurial Day which recently took place during Global Entrepreneurship Week at CUT.    

The Entrepreneurial Day was held on 16 November and included seminars on the ‘Introduction to Entrepreneurship’, ‘From Unemployed to Self-Employed’ as well as ‘How Lenders and Credit Bureaus work and the Implication and Application they have from a Job and Entrepreneurial Perspective’, to name a few.   62 graduates and current students were in attendance and revelled in the knowledge departed by experts including Business Woman of the Year 2012 Mrs Rothea van Biljon, National Deputy President of ACHIB Mr Michael Molloyi, Department of Labour Councillor Ms Lucia Tsholo and Mr Henri Jacobs – Director: Work-Integrated Learning and Skills Development, CUT.   Career Officer at CUT, Mrs Maritha Bosch comments, “We are fortunate enough to welcome intelligent scholars through our doors each year. Our challenge is to transform those scholars into the future entrepreneurial heavyweights of our country so we encourage all students to participate in entrepreneurial skills development courses where possible.”   

Pictured is Guest speakers at CUT’s Entrepreneurial Day on 16 November, from left: Ms Rothea van Biljon, Certified Financial Planner CFP®, Business Woman of the Year 2012 (Professional Category) and CUT Council Member; Mr Michael Molloyi, National Deputy President of ACHIB; and Ms Lucia Tsholo, Counsellor, Department of Labour