Entrepreneurs, Education & the South African Economy | Prof Cecile Nieuwenhuizen
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Entrepreneurship as a formal academic discipline began in Europe and the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. South Africa only introduced its first formal qualification in the field in the mid-1990s. That qualification, the National Diploma in Small Business Management, was developed by Prof Cecile Nieuwenhuizen at a Technikon in 1994. At the time, there were no local textbooks, no established curriculum and no template to follow. The gap had to be built from scratch.
In conversation with Prof Ignatius Gous, Nieuwenhuizen explains that she & her colleagues did not start in a library. They went out and interviewed successful South African entrepreneurs. They asked what those entrepreneurs wished they had known earlier. They listened to what was missing. The textbooks and qualifications that followed came directly from that fieldwork.
That bottom-up approach shaped everything. The material was practical before it was theoretical. And it reached students who had never once considered starting their own business
In conversation with Prof Ignatius Gous, Nieuwenhuizen explains that she & her colleagues did not start in a library. They went out and interviewed successful South African entrepreneurs. They asked what those entrepreneurs wished they had known earlier. They listened to what was missing. The textbooks and qualifications that followed came directly from that fieldwork.
That bottom-up approach shaped everything. The material was practical before it was theoretical. And it reached students who had never once considered starting their own business
Chapters
- 00:00 Welcome & Introduction
- 01:11 From Small Business to the Ivory Tower
- 18:15 Teaching Entrepreneurship That Works
- 31:46 Women in Business and the Barriers They Face
- 37:45 The Informal Sector and Red Tape
- 54:41 What South Africa Can Learn From Poland
- 01:04:48 A Family Built on Entrepreneurship
- 01:11:36 The Future: Connecting Ideas to Capital
