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Golden UK opportunity for entrepreneurs

Cape Town – A group of young South African entrepreneurs recently took part in an international trade programme (ITP) in the UK.

The visit lasted one week and was so successful that the organisers, the Enterprise Development Organisation (Medo) and the sponsors, BT (British Telecom) Global Services, decided to run it again in January 2014.

Applications can be submitted now already.

The aim of the ITP is to stimulate trade between South Africa and the UK, while fast tracking entrepreneurial businesses at the same time.

This is regarded as being key to economic growth and job creation in South Africa.
 
The selected entrepreneurs spent a week in the UK, participating in training programmes, networking events and business and investor pitches.
 
They spoke about their experiences in the UK at a recent feedback session held at the University of Stellenbosch Business school (USB) in Bellville, Cape Town.

Five of the eleven small businesses represented on the trip managed to conclude deals or partnerships with stakeholders in the UK and Europe.
 
The remaining six entrepreneurs established good networks with potential partners.

“Both business and government are saying that entrepreneurs are key to future economic growth and the creation of jobs in South Africa,” said Judi Sandrock, CEO of Medo.

“One of the selection criteria for entrepreneurs on our programme is that they must want to engage in the formal economy to create more jobs.”

Medo’s activities involve placing suitable aspiring entrepreneurs on a free intensive programme.

The potential entrepreneurs are identified by the Medo-team, who travels across the country in a mobile office.

They stop off in towns to interview candidates and then help them to become established by means of fast tracking.

Before leaving for the UK the young entrepreneurs completed a “boot camp session” at the University of Stellenbosch’s Executive Development Faculty (USB-ED).

“Our philosophy is to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem, where different role players come together to create the support networks and the mentoring needed to uplift entrepreneurs,” said De Wet Schoeman, director of the Centre for Applied Entrepreneurship at the USB-ED.

“It was the opportunity of a lifetime,” said Veronica Shangali Aswani, founder of Wavunow.com, an e-commerce website that brings rural African crafters to the global community.

“All three of the meetings I had set up - including one with Bloomberg - were successful and I have verbal agreements for orders,” she said at the feedback session.

“I’m going to liaise with them to ensure we produce items of the right standards for the European market. Many small industries will develop out of these deals”.
 
For Dean Thompson, owner of Inferno Films (a corporate and marketing video production company), the trip put his wildest dreams very much within his grasp.

He has entered into an agreement with Jacaranda, the biggest corporate video production company in the UK, to shoot local footage for its clients.

“After all, the world is receptive to business in South Africa – they want to get into our market,” said Thompson.
 
According to Raphael Mohlala of the IT company Phakamo Holdings, the Medo-programme had enabled the company to be fast-tracked and sign two deals to become the representatives of Alfresco and Masabi technologies in South Africa and in Africa.
 
Alfresco has invited him and his business partner to a summit in Barcelona later this year, to discuss the impact technology is having in Europe and the US.
 
In a further effort to develop entrepreneurial talent in South Africa, USB-ED and Medo announced that they have signed a letter of intent to collaborate.
 
“USB Executive Development is one of two South African Universities to be ranked within the top 50 executive education institutions in the world,” said Sandrock.
 
A further objective of this collaboration is to allow for entrepreneurship training to take place at the USB-ED and be partly conducted by USB-ED faculty and partly by Medo training experts.
 
“Entrepreneurship is greatly needed on the African continent and is currently a key focus area of the South African government,” said Frik Landman, CEO of USB-ED.

For more information visit www.medo.co.za.

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- Fin24


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