In harmony with celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship during the Global Entrepreneurship Week, Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) in partnership with Junior Achievement SA and the City of Joburg’s Department of Economic Development hosted an Innovation and Entrepreneurship conference for grade 9 – 12 learners.

The conference began with a welcome speech by DBSA’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship Manager Jayshree Naidoo, followed by opening remarks by Stephanie Van Straten, the Junior Mayor of the city of Johannesburg’s youth council.

Junior Mayor Opening Remarks:  Ms Stephanie Van Straten

• “The City of Johannesburg Learner Council is a project formed by the office of the speaker (2nd highest office in the council of Johannesburg, under the Mayor’s council/office)”.
• “Aim of the project is to bring together learners from well and under resourced schools with the objective of breaking boundaries caused by the apartheid past”.
• “Encouraging the voice of youth so they can be heard by fellow South-Africans and notably promoting and developing leadership skills and allowing for the growth of the future leaders of South Africa”.

Ms Stephanie Van Straten, Junior Mayor

City of Joburg’s Young Entrepreneurship Programme

Mr Brian Zondo, Deputy Director, Policy and Programme Integration, City of Joburg talked about the City’s Young Entrepreneurship Programme and covered the following points:

• City of Joburg’s work with regards to youth development, economic development, social development and life skills.
• Young Entrepreneurship policy that looks at people under the age of 18 and the City’s commitment to join forces with organisations as Junior Achievement SA, DBSA, and the Youth Foundation in order to accomplish set development goals targeted at the youth of South Africa.
• The introduction of a City wide competition where learners  are selected to travel overseas to observe and meet other young entrepreneurs.
• Link the youth with existing South African businesses who have concrete methods on how they can help develop young entrepreneurs.
• The introduction of a three year programme on developing the youth into business minded individuals.

Mr. Brian Zondo, City of Johannesburg

Presentation by Junior Achievement SA

• Bonga Khumalo, Junior Achievement SA National Programmes Coordinator presented the first activity of the day, More than Money, a financial literacy board game that learners  played in teams. The game aims to teach learners about how to manage their money.
• The second phase of his presentation was the My Money Business programme which taught learners how to save and spend their money.

The Six Thinking Hats Presentation – Jayshree Naidoo

Jayshree Naidoo did an exercise on Edward de Bono’s lateral thinking techniques in order to show the learners how to come up with business ideas.
Learners were encouraged to come up with a random word and wrote down any key words that came to mind associated with the random word. After this they wrote down any business idea that was inspired by the keyword. 

The conference ended with a prize giving and the handing out of certificates of attendance to all the learners.