Winners of the SA Teen Entrepreneur awards

The SA Teen Entrepreneur winning team from Ikamvalethu High School in Langa.

Following the 12-month programme, where high school students learned the necessary skills, the Entrepreneur Societies from Cravenby Comprehensive School in Ravensmead, Goodwood College in Ruyterwacht, Ikamvalethu Secondary School in Langa, and Saxonsea Primary School in Atlantis presented a varied selection of business ideas to a panel of judges. The panel included local celebrity, motivational speaker and entrepreneur, Simba Gozo, and past Teen Entrepreneur participant who now runs a number of successful businesses of his own – including South Africa’s first online bank targeting the youth as its primary audience – Jamie Wyngaard.

Business ideas ranged from a concept to produce compost from recycled plant and vegetable materials from Cravenby Comprehensive School. Cravenby was the 2017 overall winner, and impressed judges once again with the fact that their business was already operational and providing compost to the surrounding community. Their teacher champion is an accomplished farmer with a passion for transferring his skills to young people. The teacher, along with a commitment and eager group of young people, is proving to be a very successful combination.

Second runners-up, Goodwood College, presented a proposal to lure young people away from gangsterism and drugs by instead channelling their talents into a performing arts programme. There is a great deal of talent in our communities, said Feroza Adams, the teacher champion at Good College, it ranges from musical gifts to modern dance, to acting, and many more. We believe our programme, with the correct support and guidance, can elevate young talent to compete both locally and internationally.

Ikamvalethu High School's winning project

First runners-up, as well as the overall winning team this year, came from Ikamvalethu High School in Langa. It was clear that environmental awareness and recycling was the key driver for the business ideas that were presented by these two groups.

The first runners-up presented an idea to produce briquettes/firelights using recycled material sourced from households locally. In a community where cooking was still predominantly being done on fires using outside cookers, their firelighters were a cheaper alternative, more environmentally-friendly, but also did the job of raising awareness in the community of recycling waste and reducing littering.

The 2018 overall winners created brightly coloured coasters and earrings in traditional African designs, using recycled bottle tops. The judges were impressed by the practical and novel way in which bottle tops can be re-used to become an object of beauty rather than a source of damage on the environment if discarded in the community.

The SA Teen Entrepreneur team is already gearing up for next year's programme, with interest from schools from afar afield as Caledon in the Cape, to the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, and a few high schools in KZN.

For more information, visit: teenentrepreneur.co.za