Prof. Henk de Jager Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof. Joan Lockyer, Director of Education, International Centre for Transformational Entrepreneurship (ICTE) at Coventry University, Dr Herman Mashaba, CUT alumna, Executive Mayor of Johannesburg and, Hammanskraal-born businessman and Black Like Me founder and Prof. Albert Strydom, Dean of Management Sciences.

The Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT), has in line with Vision 2020, set a goal of transforming the institution into an innovative and entrepreneurial university, and becoming a robust agent for socio-economic development in the city and the region.

On 16 September 2019, the Faculty of Management Sciences held its annual Herman Mashaba public lecture during which Prof. Joan Lockyer, Director of Education, International Centre for Transformational Entrepreneurship (ICTE) at Coventry University delivered an insightful presentation on the importance of transformational entrepreneurship in the socio-economic development of South Africa.

Prof. Lockyer explained how their university interprets transformational entrepreneurship within their programmes and why they believe it is an important alternative perspective to the normal approach to entrepreneurship, as well as why they also think it is important and valuable in terms of the socio-economic development of South Africa.

When unpacking transformational entrepreneurship, Prof. Lockyer said it aims to promote enterprise, and entrepreneurship through a systemic approach, bringing about a transformation in socio-economic development (Maas, Jones, Lockyer, 2016).

“When we talk about enterprise, we refer to the ways of thinking, of approaching a subject, and using what we have to transform our jobs or workplaces with the skills and attributes of an entrepreneur without starting a business. For us, transformation is about creating an ecosystem that enables socio-economic change to be productive.”

She also said that there is a disconnection between what is taught in institutions and what is happening in the outside world. Prof. Lockyer further indicated that South Africa is an efficiency-driven economy and people do not feel that they have the skills for entrepreneurship in the widest population. She said that people between the ages of 24-34 years are least entrepreneurially active as compared with the mature age group of 45-54.

“In South Africa, gender parity is improving and that needs to be encouraged and supported. Our role is to make the impossible possible. It’s never easy, simple and straight forward because we live in a complex world and we talk to our students about metacognition. We try to get them to think beyond the obvious solutions to problems and encourage them to not only think about getting a job after graduating. By getting them to think in this metacognitive way, we are saying that education gives tools while experience gives knowledge of the world. We need to bring these two together and see where it takes us and use the metacognitive understanding to create space for ourselves.”

Prof. Joan Lockyer is an experienced enterprise educator, leading on the development of a Masters in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education and co-delivering the International Enterprise Educators Programme (IEEP). She has developed a variety of modules that supports enterprise and entrepreneurship skills development in undergraduates regardless of disciplines. Her research interests embrace entrepreneurship in a range of contexts, but with a focus on the transformative effects of entrepreneurship through education, leadership and Innovation. She has also worked on projects in Oman, South Africa, China, Nigeria and In the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Documents Prof. Lockyer availed after the lecture

1. The Powerpoint Presentation Prof. Joan Lockyer presented, The importance of transformational entrepreneurship in the socio-economic development of South Africa(PDF).
2. Chapter from a book that embodies the referred to proposition paper, The Journey to Transformational Entrepreneurship (PDF).