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entrepreneurship focuses on learning experiences and the development of competences, skills attitudes and values (Postigo & Tamborini, 2002: 2).
From the participants’ perspective entrepreneurship education at the University of KwaZulu- Natal’s Pietermaritzburg campus is mostly ‘about’ entrepreneurship and should become ‘for’
entrepreneurship if it is to be more effective in producing successful entrepreneurs from its graduates. Klandt (1993 cited in Jesselyn & Mitchell, 2005: 4) mentions that for educating
‘about’ entrepreneurship in particular the following methods are normally used: consulting services by students and researchers whereas educating ‘for’ entrepreneurship involves using techniques such as: practical work, writing business plans, working with entrepreneurs, videos, role playing games and joining a student’s entrepreneurial club.
According to the current research’s participants the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Pietermaritzburg campus needs to implement the methods utilised in educating ‘for’
entrepreneurship as this will lead to more graduates becoming successful entrepreneurs.
Although UKZN’s Corporate Relations Alumni Affairs unit has entrepreneurship training and a jobs skills workshop for recent graduates in place, its limitations are in that it is a bi-annual two day affair and it only caters for a few graduates, it also does not cater for current students, even those in their final year of university (www.ukzn.ac.za).
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economic development in their communities as their companies offer employment opportunities to unemployed people.
All research participants faced financial challenges when they were starting their businesses as banks and other financial institutions would not easily lend them start-up capital due to their lack of collateral and experience. The participants however mostly overcame their financial difficulties by being creative as they asked for substantial deposits from their first clients. Some also worked in partnership with bigger established companies as a means to cut costs. The research participants however thought that private and public financial institutions should be more effective in assisting young entrepreneurs with easier access to business start-up capital.
Administrative challenges were another difficulty that the young entrepreneurs in this study faced when they were attempting to register their companies as well as open accounts for them. The participants thought that the government should make it easier to register companies and that banks should make it easier for young people to engage successfully in entrepreneurship.
Growing their businesses was also a big challenge for the participants in the research as they had problems with getting clients and establishing their brands in general. They mostly used
‘word of mouth’ as the primary means of marketing their businesses. Competition from older established companies and high entry barriers were also mentioned as hindering the development of the participants’ businesses.
Most of the participants highlighted that they had some problems with managing their businesses. This is because they experienced challenges with separating their business accounts from their personal ones. They also experienced a high staff turnover. Time management was also a challenge for some of the participants.
Female participants in this study reported that they had problems with being taken seriously by their male counterparts in business. They felt that they were under constant gender-based pressure from men to prove their capabilities.
Family background was found to be an important factor which determines entrepreneurial success among the participants of this study. Coming from an entrepreneurial and financially
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stable family is an advantage for a young person who wants to become an entrepreneur.
Aspirant young entrepreneurs from poor backgrounds have a harder time trying to establish a business due to their lack of financial support from family members and friends. However this background of hardship instils the traits of resilience and hard work in business. The participants also mentioned that successful entrepreneurship requires certain personality traits which not everyone has but some of these traits can be learnt.
Most of the participants said that entrepreneurship education at university gave them the basic knowledge that they require for successful entrepreneurship but still required some reforms to make it more effective. These, according to the participants, would include the use of mentors, giving students practical business projects and making entrepreneurship education compulsory for all students.
The participants thought that entrepreneurship development would improve in the city if the local government created the conditions which encourage investment in Pietermaritzburg.
This would lead to more economic development and ultimately entrepreneurial development as more opportunities for business engagement would resultantly arise.
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Chapter Six: Conclusion
“It is often said that science must avoid any conclusions which smack of the supernatural”
Michael Behe
This study has attempted to investigate the challenges which young graduates of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Pietermaritzburg campus face in their attempts to successfully engage in entrepreneurship. The reason for this has been to try to get a better understanding of these challenges in order to search for solutions which might make it easier for more graduates to become entrepreneurs. The impact that entrepreneurship education has on successful entrepreneurial engagement among young university graduates was also one major area of investigation as an inquiry was made to assess the level at which entrepreneurship education is effective in producing successful entrepreneurs among graduates. The aforementioned investigations were done as an effort to establish the feasibility of entrepreneurship as a solution to the challenge of rising unemployment among university graduates at UKZN and in the country in general.
An extensive literature review was used for collecting secondary data, and primary data were gathered through interviews with ten UKZN (Pietermaritzburg campus) graduates who are now engaged in entrepreneurship. This was all done to answer the research questions (refer to chapter 1). The next section gives a summary and interpretation of the major research findings in this study.