ORT JET helps shape budding entrepreneurs

MARCELLE RAVID

Stresses programme manager, Alon Joseph: “Due to last year’s successful pilot which included 50 King David High School pupils, ORT JET has expanded the extracurricular activity in 2014 to all Jewish learners in all schools, between the ages of 15 – 18, who are interested in successful entrepreneurship and how it relates in the current business environment.”

Added Joseph: “When we heard about Primedia’s ‘Step Up 2 Start Up’ initiative, we immediately joined them to pass on the expertise we have garnered.”

Said Martin Sweet, MD of Primestars Marketing and the brainchild behind “Step Up 2 Start Up”: “If we are to succeed in fostering entrepreneurship in South Africa, we must present it as a viable option at school level, alongside other career choices. Waiting until learners finish matric may be too late.”

The accompanying competition will give learners the opportunity to explore their aptitude as entrepreneurs, by providing a platform to showcase their ideas, business models, prototypes and services.

Entries will be sought from across the country and finalists will stand a chance of winning a place in the “Step Up 2 Start Up Entrepreneurs Boot Camp”, to be hosted by ORT JET (a division of ORT SA) in Johannesburg in late November early December.

Airport’s Company South Africa (ACSA) will sponsor flights for finalists to be flown in from six of the nine provinces and Tsogo Group are providing all the finalists with accommodation at their Garden Court Hotel. 

ORT JET “believes education is the key to empowering our community. Our mentorship and training programmes have impacted hundreds of small business owners over the last seven years.

“We are excited to share our special school-based project with the finalists of this national competition. Our boot camp has been designed to inspire and ignite the entrepreneurial spirit of South African youth and we look forward to adding value to this project,” said Paul Bacher CEO of ORT JET.