Junior Achievement South Africa Patron, Ms Wendy Luhabe, last week announced a grant of R100 000 from the Wendy Luhabe Foundation towards the newly launched Junior Achievement SA Entrepreneurship Academy Programme.

The announcement was made at a function at Citi in Sandton where Ms Linda McClure the Managing Director, presented the 2009 Annual Report of Junior Achievement SA, and also announced the launch of the Entrepreneurship Academy Programme.

The Programme is offered to Grade 11 learners, and is conducted over a period of eight months. Learners are subject to a selection process to determine their capability to participate in this intensive programme which exposes and educates learners in entrepreneurship, financial literacy, economics, ethics, a ten day company internship, life skills and work place readiness. Through the Personal Positioning Strategy, a compulsory pre programme module, the programme emphasises a culture of taking responsibility for oneself.

“We are extremely grateful for the support from Wendy Luhabe. We believe the intensive nature of this programme will make a real contribution to the development of young people and towards encouraging them to consider entrepreneurship as a career choice while providing them with the necessary skills to do so”, says Linda McClure. “The inclusion of a range of aspects such as financial literacy and ethics ensures a holistic educational process”, she added. Furthermore, “Entrepreneurs create and bring to life new technologies, products and services and create new markets and jobs along the way; they are smart risk takers, implementers, rule-breakers; or in a word: innovators. And like any emerging economy aiming to move ahead, in South Africa we need lots of them.” Linda concludes, quoting from a report done by the Centre for Development and Enterprise.

The Wendy Luhabe Foundation utilises the profits from Defining Moments, a book written by Wendy Luhabe, to educate young disadvantaged black women. “Over my years as an entrepreneur, I have not encountered another organisation with the capacity of Junior Achievement SA to address the urgent need to develop young entrepreneurs in the country. Their work has been has been a blessing for the country as they champion an institutional and systematic shift towards entrepreneurship.” says Wendy Luhabe, founder of the Wendy Luhabe Foundation, further adding that entrepreneurship shifts a nation from a culture of dependence to that of independence.

The Entrepreneurship Academy Programme has been launched in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town with the support of FNB Commercial with 150 learners currently attending. It is planned that the Wendy Luhabe Foundation funded programme will be offered to 50 learners from previously disadvantaged areas where there is a desperate need.