The Young Spark Foundation
What does your company do?
The Young Spark Foundation aims to do its part in introducing entrepreneurship
education in township-based schools using project-based teaching methodologies.
This is to inculcate a culture of entrepreneurial thinking and action together with an introduction to Financial literacy education. We teach the thinking behind
entrepreneurship and then follow a practical approach of taking learners through the
process of problem identification/opportunity assessment, ideation, testing and validating, and managing the actual operational challenges of running a business. The understanding is tested through the facilitation of presentations/pitches and inter/intra
school entrepreneurial competition.
What is your biggest success?
My biggest success to date has to include the publishing of our entrepreneurship activity book called the Young Entrepreneur. The book is a 33-page activity book which teaches the basics of entrepreneurship from key terminologies, the process of starting a
business, the tools one can use to understand their customer and the
basic financial terminologies that one needs to understand when running
a business. This is supported by us being able to deliver the program over a 4 day bootcamp to over 200 learners in Grades 8-11. Teaching learners how to complete a
simplified business model canvas, how to identify opportunities, how to
structure a presentation to an investor, how to complete a high-level income and expense statement, a basic understating of what savings are and the importance of money management. Our program has found and developed a rubric that is able to measure the following competencies: Problem solving, opportunity assessment, creativity, resilience and leadership.
What has been your biggest hurdle?
Our biggest challenge has been access to the right collaborative partners and resources to ensure program reach and uptake by more public schools. We also understand that entrepreneurship as learning needs a pathway and an ecosystem, meaning that having the 4 day bootcamp as the only touch point we have with the learners is inadequate. To ensure successful adoption and learning of entrepreneurship, we need to ensure multiple touchpoints to ensure successful conversion.
