In the False Bay TVET College Centre for Entrepreneurship Rapid Incubator (CFERI) ongoing efforts to become the leading TVET CFERI nationally, they were pleased to be nominated to host the Entrepreneurship Best Practices workshop commissioned by the Department of Higher Education and Training.
The engagement will aid the TVET College sector to put strategic plans in place to ensure the national strategic priority of creating an enabling environment for small, micro, and medium enterprises and entrepreneurs to thrive, inculcating the spirit of entrepreneurship in youth.
The annual event aims to address gaps and share best practice working models which aim to stimulate entrepreneurial intention and action among TVET students. The TVET student-preneurs could contribute to local economic recovery and job creation, hence it is important for under the lead of DHET, for the TVET colleges to drive this strategic imperative.
TVET College CFERI’s in the Western and Northern Cape are among the best run provincially, but there is a want and need to ensure that TVET Entrepreneurship Centres are among the best run in South Africa, hence this exercise of creating a participatory and inclusive approach amongst all TVET Colleges to offer and run customized and appropriate programs designed for the TVET student- preneur.
The 2 days of deliberations allowed for delegates to share best practices, identify gaps as well as proposed collective solutions to ensure entrepreneurship is at the forefront.
False Bay TVET College and the DHET realised the importance of benchmarks and reporting data comparisons based on a uniform approach. This provided the emphasis for the process to determine such standards.
The primary objective was to develop a typical service offering by CFERI, best practices, and support programs for youth-owned enterprises, empowering TVET Colleges to bolster the sustainability of CFERI and its beneficiaries.
CFERI Manager at False Bay TVET College, Ms. Nafeesa Dinie in her opening address said, “The aim is to develop a strong supporting SMME development ecosystem through events of this nature, which creates an opportunity for the development of co-creation models and collaboration amongst all shareholders and stakeholders in driving TVET entrepreneurship programs and services.”
Over the 2-day event, there were a total of 70 workshop participants. Of these, there were Senior executive management officials from the Department of Higher Education and Training, 25 participating TVET colleges from across the Country, 5 SETA’s as well SMME eco-system network partners and agencies, including SEDA (the Small Enterprise Development Agency), Allan Gray Makers and experts in the field of Entrepreneurship and Incubation.
