The Innovator Trust making a difference, one young entrepreneur at a time

With Youth Month concluded, it is not without adversity for South African youth who are battling the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, a waning economy and an alarming youth unemployment rate. Despite the challenges facing the country’s youth, the Innovator Trust have intensified their efforts towards making a difference in the lives of young South Africans.

 

Just over three years ago, the Innovator Trust launched the Young Entrepreneurship Programme (YEP) targeted at young entrepreneurs between the ages of 18-35 in the technology sector. The programme was launched with the aim to stimulate job creation and drive innovation among small black-owned technology-focused businesses in South Africa.

 

More than 100 young innovators impacted

 

Since 2017, year-on-year, the Innovator Trust has reported steady growth with regards to their YEP programme. According to figures from their latest 2021 Impact Report, the Trust has inducted 103 young South Africans into the programme since inception, 53 of them women, and seen more than 90 internship opportunities afforded to these youth. The YEP programme has also grown geographically with presence across Gauteng, Western Cape, Free State and Mpumalanga. From the past cohort of YEP graduates, five have gone on to register their own businesses, choosing to embark on the entrepreneurial journey, with a number of beneficiaries currently permanently employed and contributing to the economy.

 

Cognisant of the digital shift brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, training methods for the YEP programme were adapted in the last year with virtual learning beginning as early as March 2020. Having completed most of the year’s training which included a comprehensive set of courses from Business Modelling and Personal Development, to Business Communication, Conflict Management, Coding, Basics of Machine Learning and most recently the inclusion of Digital Marketing and Brand Strategy, the 2021 cohort of YEP beneficiaries are currently gearing up for the final round of evaluation in the programme – business plan presentations – with graduations set to take place in 2022.