Faced with record unemployment of 32.8%, the South African government, supported by its partners, has launched a $53 million fund to stimulate technological entrepreneurship within universities. This initiative follows on from the TIMBUKTOO initiative presented at DAVOS, aimed at countering the effects of business relocation and productivity challenges.
The European Union has awarded an $8.1 million grant to promote digital transformation in technical and vocational education, supporting the efforts of the government and its allies to develop educational projects.
The Higher Education Innovation Fund aims to bridge the human capital gap identified among technology entrepreneurs and to strengthen start-up ecosystems. This scheme will enable students to be immediately operational in the technological entrepreneurship sector after university, thus facilitating their professional integration.
Raising funds from investment companies is often a long and complex process, which has an impact on the implementation of innovative entrepreneurial projects. This fund is therefore a response to the challenges of integrating graduates into the world of work, by looking ahead to university and technical colleges, where technological entrepreneurship will be taught as a discipline in its own right.
The aim is twofold: to reduce the unemployment rate without compromising economic growth, while training skilled technological entrepreneurs capable of developing and marketing innovative products adapted to the South African market, in a context of increased competition between start-ups. Continuing the fight against communicable diseases and slowing down the development of non-infectious diseases: this is the twofold urgency that is emerging.