The University of Cape Town recognises that socially sustainable, financially viable start-ups and youth entrepreneurship are key to addressing the chronically high levels of unemployment in our country. We want to encourage students to become entrepreneurs. Partnerships are crucial in enabling UCT to continue striving to produce graduates who are not merely going to seek a place in the employment space, but who are themselves going to create employment opportunities through the companies they are going to start.
UCT’s commitment to changing the employment and innovation space through equipping aspiring entrepreneurs with necessary skills, mentorships and facilities, was realised through a variety of initiatives in 2024.
1. Solution Space
The UCT Graduate School of Business Solution Space is an innovation & entrepreneurship hub founded in 2014 under UCT’s Graduate School of Business. Initial funding came from the Vice-Chancellor’s Strategic Award, with MTN (later ayoba) as founding partner. The Solution Space is an innovation and entrepreneurship hub, providing training, mentorship, co-working, and access to networks. It aims to elevate early-stage start-ups, particularly “high-impact” ventures. There are two hubs located near the Graduate School of Business in the V&A Waterfront, and in Philippi, which both offer co-working spaces.
In 2024, the Solution Space’s E-Track Programme was open for African start-ups. Run in partnership with ayoba, the E-Track Programme is a two-phase early-stage venture acceleration and capacity-building programme for high-impact entrepreneurs in South Africa and beyond. Taking a high-touch scale-up approach, the programme is designed to support teams build scalable businesses with international potential. Individual participants can either explore their own business idea or join an existing venture. The programme also serves as a platform for corporate partners to engage and collaborate on specific research and development agendas.
E-Track is a two-phase venture acceleration programme, tackling the various stages of venture building and development.
- Phase one is the 5-week Venture Launch course which focuses on validating the venture concept.
- Phase two is the 12-week Venture Scale course which is aimed at accelerating the development of the validated venture.
2. The Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship
The Bertha Centre is the first specialised centre in Africa for social innovation & entrepreneurship, based at UCT Graduate School of Business. Its mission is to build capacity, knowledge, networks among students, practitioners and partners to generate systemic impact. Focused on social innovation, the Centre integrates social entrepreneurship into curriculum, offers courses (including MOOCs), awards scholarships for students from across Africa. ZAR8 million in scholarships has been provided to date. The Bertha Centre also engages in research and convenes practitioners for dialogue and best practice sharing.
In 2024, the Bertha Centre launched the Social Innovation in Health Fellowship, in collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation. Created as part of the Healthy Futures South Africa initiative, this academic fellowship was aimed at those interested especially in developing solutions for complex and long-standing health problems with an emphasis on community engagement. It was designed to explore new ways to make healthcare more inclusive and effective, with a focus on sustainability. Applicants needed to be based in South Africa and willing to do research in the Western Cape. The Fellowship encouraged young researchers from diverse disciplines to apply, especially those with an interest in exploring topics such as the role of AI in health, climate change, health systems in transition, and more.
3. Healthy Futures South Africa – Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative
The University of Cape Town (UCT) is one of the nine partners in the new AHEHC. The Faculty of Health Sciences partnered with the Humanities faculty and the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship along with the Western Cape government, civil society and communities in Klipfontein, Saldanha and George districts to make a collaborative effort towards a healthier South Africa.
The Healthy Futures South Africa focuses on making an impact in the following areas:
- Health Employment: Enable students to acquire advanced skills across a broad range of disciplines critical for sustainable health sector growth and transformation.
- Health Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Enhance capacity for innovative and practical interventions to improve quality of life and wellbeing in the 3 selected sites as models for practice in South Africa and Africa with a specific focus on youth and social entrepreneurship.
- Health Ecosystem: Enhance the capacity at UCT to train skilled workers for Universal Health Coverage in South Africa and Africa.
- Develop a learning network: Develop a dynamic, sustainable, long-term network of partners working and learning together to create dignified and fulfilling jobs across health ecosystems and improve health outcomes in Africa.
4. UCT Careers Service / Entrepreneurship programmes and events
UCT’s Career Service offers various events, workshops, seed funding, an annual competition (The Pitch), mentorship, and other services designed to boost entrepreneurship. Conversations about sustainable, socially impactful business ideas are facilitated, in addition to training, and helping students turn ideas into real ventures.
At the 2024 The Pitch UCT Finals Night held on 7 October 2024 at the UCT Graduate School of Business, Genius UP, a tutoring enterprise founded by student Blessing Mlambo, won first prize of R 25 000 plus six months’ business mentorship, along with access to UCT’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and an all-expenses-paid spot at the Jamboree Entrepreneurial Festival in 2025. Second place went to Hussle, a service helping students find short-term jobs, which earned R 15 000, while VarsityBLOCK, aimed at simplifying student accommodation management, came third with R 10 000. The event featured seven finalists pitching to judges, and emphasised entrepreneurship, resilience, growth mindset, and UCT’s commitment to cultivating student innovators.
5. The Jim Leech Mastercard Foundation Fellowship on Entrepreneurship
This fellowship gives African students and recent graduates the opportunity to access training, resources, financial support and a network of mentors to develop their entrepreneurial skills and start building their own venture. The 8-month program develops the exceptional entrepreneurial skillset and mindset of leaders to drive social and financial impact.
6. UCT Digital Bootcamp
A pilot project under Vision 2030, in partnership with Umuzi and corporates, aimed at giving digital skills to: (a) UCT students whose studies were interrupted, and (b) UCT graduates who have been unemployed for 3+ years. It offers different digital pathways, preparing people to either enter digital jobs or become digitally savvy entrepreneurs. This supports entrepreneurship indirectly: the skillsets and capacities are building blocks for financially viable ventures in the digital economy. The bootcamp is also designed to help inclusion (those who have been left behind).
7. Student Entrepreneurship Week 2024 (#SEW2024)
Hosted by UCT Careers Office, the Student Entrepreneurship Week took place from 29 July to 5 August 2024. Sessions included a Financial Literacy talk by Standard Bank, a Technology Start-Up Blueprint session by RCI, and panel discussions led by UCT Careers Service and UCT alumni. Free to UCT students, the Week’s talks about building sustainable businesses, intellectual property, technology startup blueprints, and more provided an opportunity to elevate students’ business ideas and sharpen their entrepreneurial skills.