Spaza shop education pilot programme launches

L - R: Liezel Bygate – Marketing Director, GSK / Dave Thomas – GM: GSK / Dr Thami Mazwai – WBS Executive in Residence / Chimene Chetty – Director, Centre for Entrepreneurship / Dr Adam Gordon – Acting Head of School.

In South Africa's competitive and ever-changing economic environment, South African Spaza Shop owners face many challenges such as inflation, limited cash flow, foreign imports, security and many more. This educational programme will focus on the skills development and empowerment of these small business owners, providing them with the right tools that will ensure sustainable growth and development.

The course will cover topics such as:

• Administration and daily business functions
  
• Competitive buying and pricing of stock
  
• Personal and business marketing
  
• Managing of cash flow and credit
  
• Customer service

The course will also look at issues such as the employment of staff, how business owners can understand their resources differently and how to negotiate with suppliers; using relevant case studies ensuring a context that is relevant and easy to understand.

Director of the CfE, Chimene Chetty says, "We realise that there are a large number of people who need our information, so what we are doing is that we are taking the academics and turning it into applied tools and applied information that we can share with people at different levels of education."

"It's important for big organisations like GlaxoSmithKline [manufacturers of Grand-Pa] that understand their route to market to step into spaces like this and see how they can use what they have to make a difference."

Qualification

The course has been accredited by the Wits Academic Programme Office and will have an NQF level two rating. Each participant will receive an official Wits-stamped certificate of attendance in a graduation ceremony at the end of the course.

There will also be post-course mentoring for the participants in partnership with the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller, which provides support to SMME's (small, medium and micro enterprises) in Gauteng.

During the month of August, spaza shop owners were made aware of the programme through print advertising, posters, flyers, PR and information shared at Spaza Association meetings. The course itself will take place one day per week over five weeks, starting on 19 September. It is hoped that this pilot will grow into bigger and greater things as Grand-Pa is invested in building South Africa's economy and enabling the future successes of its loyal customers and consumers.