Bracing ourselves for the 4th Industrial Revolution Through In-School

Entrepreneurship Education

In a bid to overcome South Africa’s economic crises and achieve economic growth, training the
next-generation of young entrepreneurs is critical. Numerous studies found that entrepreneurship
represents an effective approach to address the challenges of unemployment, inequality and
poverty. To this end, EWET (Education With Enterprise Trust) had been established as a
collaborative initiative between civil society, government, business and labour in 1992. EWET’s
work as a non-profit is being enabled through donations from well -known corporates and
foundations, government grants as well as through the execution of funding contracts secured
through competitive bidding processes from multinational organisations. This year marks the 26th
anniversary since EWET’s founding.

“What is entrepreneurship?” is a frequently discussed question within the community involved

within EWET’s in-school entrepreneurship education ecosystem called “Youth Enterprise Support
Network South Africa” or YESiNSA. Entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and attitudes are being
cultivated by the YESiNSA community amongst learners as demonstrated through the following
combined (Timmons defined) learner behaviours: able to create and build a business or
organisation from practically nothing; make things happen for themselves by accepting
responsibility; turn a set-back into an opportunity; see a gap; sense an opportunity; maintain
effort until objective/s had been achieved; build a founding team of talents and expertise around
them to complement their abilities in areas where they are less knowledgeable or skilled; initiate
and do; have the know-how to find, marshal and control resources (often owned by others) and to
make sure they never run out of money when most need and; take calculated risk, both personally
and financially to then do everything they possibly can to turn the odds in their favour.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is happening now. This revolution represents a combination of
the manufacturing industry with information and communication technologies (ICT). Technological
innovations based on information, communications and big data will maximize productivity and
efficiency in industry. The margins caused by these innovations will improve the quality of the lives
of people significantly but there will be numerous side effects.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) within its “The Future of Jobs” report in 2016 predicted that 5
million jobs will seize to exist by 2020 while 7.1 million jobs could be lost through redundancy,
automation or the elimination of an intermediary in transactions between two parties. WEF
expects for 2.1 million new kinds of jobs to be created. The WEF predicts instability in employment
through human labour being replaced by artificial intelligence and robots. We’ll have to redefine
what we mean by human identity and dignity. The impact of technological advancement gap
between people and countries could be to widen the rich-poor gap. Businessweek predicts that
about 65 percent of students who entered primary school this year would work in areas that do
not exist yet.

In-school entrepreneurial education is now being needed to brace South Africa for the impact of
the 4th industrial revolution on a personal, family, community, district, provincial and national
level. EWET’s national footprint through YESiNSA with its Youth Enterprise Society (YES) learner
clubs, Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) aligned in-classroom syllabi materials and
annual “Simama Ranta” national in-school entrepreneurship education competition for secondary
schools reaching more than 6,000 schools per annum. A proven model evolved from 24 years of
constant innovation and improvement which is ready to be up scaled for more learners to benefit.

Entrepreneurship is the greatest legacy that we can leave for our next-generation who lives in
uncertain times. Our generation carries the responsibility to foster the next generation with their
keen insights to find new values through change, to establish social infrastructure which allows
young people to take on challenges without a fear of failure, through entrepreneurial education.

PO Box 150, 49c Stuart Street, Harrismith 9880 South Africa

Tel: (058) 6230104 /6230649/6230123 Fax: (058) 6230107 E-Mail: arie@ewet.org.za
Registration no. 5961/92. Public Benefit Organisation no. 930013786. Nonprofit registration no. 000-383
Website: http://www.ewet.org.za Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EwetEducationWithEnterpriseTrust
Twitter: @EWETian Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNmbM4abd3c&t=1266s Scribd:
https://www.scribd.com/document/369355480/Youth-Enterprise-Support-Network-South-Africa-YESiNSA