World Entrepreneurs’ Day: Rethinking the role of education in tackling youth unemployment

Today’s employment landscape has changed drastically, with entrepreneurship at the center of this transformation. SMEs and small business owners have become the backbone of our economy, contributing around 24% of GDP. While South Africa boasts a vibrant start-up and small business sector, the critical question remains: how do we sustain this growth while simultaneously driving job creation?

As it stands, entrepreneurship in South Africa is a driving force behind South Africa’s economic growth, especially in the small, medium, and micro enterprise (SMME) sector, which supports over 13 million employees. However, our SMME failure rate is among the highest in the world. To help stop this bleed, we need to develop school curriculums that equip learners with entrepreneurial skills, giving them the tools and confidence to overcome challenges they may encounter on their entrepreneurial journey.

There is a real need to provide learners with a future-forward education that harnesses technology, encourages lateral thinking, and teaches skills they can take forward with them. By instilling an entrepreneurial mindset and practical skills, this will help our youth to take charge of their futures, and ultimately, to help build a stronger economy.

By the time learners matriculate, they should be equipped with essential knowledge in marketing, financial management, innovation and networking, coding, content creation and cryptocurrencies. These skills will help sustain entrepreneurial momentum and nurture a generation of youth who are innovative, future-ready, and equipped with the latest skills needed to excel. As education leaders, we must build strong partnerships with active entrepreneurs who can expose learners to the real challenges of entrepreneurship in 2025 and share the practical solutions they use to overcome them...  learners

Young South Africans can no longer rely on the formal sector for employment; it has become imperative for us as leaders to equip them with the acumen they need to start and run businesses that thrive. We need to introduce practical entrepreneurship programs at school level that nurture the kids’ entrepreneurial minds- and skill sets from as early as Grade 6. This will ensure that our youth is prepared to excel in a world where job security is no longer guaranteed.

With unemployment at a staggering 33.2% in the second quarter of 2025, young people aged 15 to 34 remain the most vulnerable in the labour market. This makes entrepreneurship an increasingly vital pathway to economic security and independence. There remains an intrinsic need to provide our youth with a future-forward education that harnesses technology, encourages lateral thinking, and teaches skills they can take forward with them.

Going forward, an entrepreneurial mindset and practical skills will be critical in navigating unpredictable economic challenges and in driving the development of stronger economies.

At Centennial Schools, we developed an entrepreneurship program called NextGen Founders, designed to equip students with the practical entrepreneurial skills that will help contribute to combating unemployment crisis in South Africa- and future ready skills that actually prepare them for entrepreneurship.

Centennial Schools’ CEO and founder, Shaun Fuchs

*** The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Independent Media or IOL.

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