“Graduates are shaping their own career paths by means of entrepreneurship and by doing so, they are changing the world of work for the foreseeable future.”
This is according to Ms Natanya Meyer, an entrepreneur and lecturer in the School of Management Sciences on the North-West University’s (NWU’s) campus in Vanderbijlpark.
Natanya, who is also a coordinating member of the campus’s annual Student Business Competition – hosted by the bhive Enterprise Development Centre (bhive EDC) – champions entrepreneurship not only as a sustainable solution to economic growth, but also for job creation. “Graduates are making the paradigm shift from being job seekers to becoming job creators, and as a forward thinking university we are working tirelessly to vest a culture of entrepreneurial ethos within our student community,” says Natanya and adds that more than 30 applications have already been accepted for this year’s rendition of the Student Business Competition.
More about the competition
The competition boasts a full programme of workshops and networking sessions and students from all faculties are invited to take part. The programme includes the following sessions:
- Idea Generation Workshop
- Idea to Concept Workshop
- Business Model Canvas Workshop
- Networking
- Pitching Workshop
The competition will be decided over three rounds.
The first submission for assessment purposes will be on 14 August after which the finalists will be announced on 21 August. At this stage each finalist will be assigned a mentor who will coach them in terms of business strategies and creative processes. On 14 September the Top 5 participants will be announced after which the final panel presentations will be delivered on Wednesday, 20 September.
In addition to the training and development which takes place during the course of the competition, the finalists will receive prizes which will assist in the development of their businesses, namely:
- Seed funding to be invested in the development of their business;
- bhive EDC business incubation; and
- one-year membership to the bhive EDC Young Entrepreneurs Business Organisation (YEBO).
For more information, please contact the bhive EDC on 016 910 3393.
Ms Natanya Meyer, an entrepreneur and lecturer in the School of Management Sciences and also a coordinating member of the annual Student Business Competition.
