Primestars Step Up 2 A Startup Programme Continues To Prepare Thousands Of Young South African Entrepreneurs
The theme for this year’s Primestars Step Up 2 A Start-Up is, “Think Tech, Do business,” and from the 18th of August to the 18th of September 2018, learners in grades 9-11 will begin their journey into the world of tech entrepreneurship. As known, the program encourages High School learners to come up with innovative ideas that speak to the theme where they will be provided with the right tools to become entrepreneurs and make a positive impact to the South African economy. Its latest theme is challenging learners to embrace technology as a platform for small business creations.
On the 27th of July, Primestars hosted the 2018 Step Up event introducing the “Think Tech. Do Business” theme with keynote speakers such as Robert Kiyosaki, a Japanese American author, and businessman. The theme is exciting, and in respect to it, the movie will be a story about a young lady who discovers technology, designs a business to not only change her future but of her community as well. Customarily after the lesson of the movie, the learners will be offered a proper toolkit to assist them in implementing the skills learned that will allow them to develop their own business ideas and models.
The annual Step Up 2 A Start-Up is an opportunity to more than 200,000, mostly previously disadvantaged, secondary school learners from across the country to enter Ster Kinerkor “Educational Theaters of learning” complexes which are strategically selected for the learner’s convenience and accessibility. The program is usually presented in an 80-minute feature film where the movie has a theme of someone who commits to form an enterprise around an idea and ends up with a customer obliging to using the products or service. Each year the movies include modified stages of entrepreneurship development and the specific leadership requirements needed to succeed. The aim is to enlarge the learner’s visions and experience of who they are, what they may become, and are provided the tools necessary to ignite these visions.
The Step Up 2 A has a second phase trial where learners will be given the opportunity to compete in an entrepreneurial competition where they will be submitting their business model canvasses for assessment and adjudication by a panel of industry professionals and sponsors. Throughout this process, at least nine top business models will be identified and the teams responsible will be invited to attend a boot camp in Johannesburg. This boot camp will sharpen and polish the participant’s skills as they start to think more about developing their businesses based on the ideas they submitted. The boot camp concludes with a prestigious Gala Dinner and an Award ceremony.
Since its inception, in 2014, Primestars, Step up to start up program has ignited the plot of entrepreneurship in respect to inspire and educate school going learners about the fundamentals of entrepreneurship, exposing them to early entrepreneurship attributes and reaching out to at least 65,000 of these learners nationwide. The program remains to be financially catered and partners with respected program sponsors such as Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda), Standard Bank, Sasol and MTN Foundation.
Besides the Step Up 2 A Start-Up project, Primestars also boasts projects such as Take a Girl- Child to Work Day, the Sowetan- Your Money Club, “My Future, My Career” a career Gudence project, The “eduCate” Matric Revision Math and Science Initiative, “Smartbucks, Mind Your Moolah” Financial Literacy Project and STEP UP LET’S LEAD inspiring youth leadership.
The Managing Director of Primestars, William Sweet, who migrated from being law attorney to marketing has an impressive track record in conceptualizing and managing projects these projects.” You can’t always build a future for our youth, but you can build the youth for our future”, Martin Sweet at the StepUp 2018 event.
Accordingly, this is a call out to all the South African young secondary learners to save the date and be ready to focus and prepare their mindsets in becoming the next job creators instead of job seekers.
