Challenges experienced by youth aspiring to become entrepreneurs in a township in the Western Cape

Abstract

Young entrepreneurs in South Africa are not on the same level as young entrepreneurs in the cities and suburbs. This is affecting young people who aspire to become entrepreneurs as they face many challenges, for example, they do not have any mentors, community leaders are not doing their job efficiently, support from the community is lacking, and there are no resources and funding. These challenges led to many aspiring entrepreneurs having a negative attitude towards pursuing their goals. If they could have all the support needed, it would help keeping them off the streets, drinking less, using fewer drugs, and committing less crime. It would also help with job creation as most of them are unemployed. The main objective of this study was to identify the challenges influencing the current challenging situation as experienced by NEET youth aspiring to become entrepreneurs in Capricorn Park in the Southern suburbs in Cape Town. The second objective was to identify the strategies youth could use to select possible entrepreneurship opportunities. Qualitative research techniques were applied in this study. The data were collected through online surveys and the findings were derived in response to the research questions. Participants completed four (4) surveys: informed consent, demographics, community mapping and aspiring entrepreneurs. All the respondents to the online survey questions were selected from Capricorn Park through probability sampling. The researchers found that many of the challenges standing in the way of young aspiring entrepreneurs are indeed having a negative impact on these youngsters’ lives. They display negative behaviour towards becoming entrepreneurs because they fear not receiving any support from the community; furthermore, there are no training centres or educational facilities to help them. Not having mentors, resources, funding, or not being informed of the steps to follow to become an entrepreneur has made these youngsters less motivated as they do not know where to start and they do not have any guidance. Based on the data gathered from the respondents, the researchers noticed that the youth of Capricorn Park need guidance, which is why having mentors is extremely important. From there, having the right people next to them, being supported, and receiving guidance, everything else will fall into place for them to become skilled and educated. They also need to be ambitious about the type of business they would like to be involved in, be passionate and confident. Small business developments can be introduced in the community as well as short business management courses.