Recap: Where We Started
The first article explored Youth Day as more than a commemoration. It asked what it means to support young people not just with belief, but with structure. It challenged the idea that entrepreneurs succeed on their own and pointed instead to the systems that shape them. It introduced the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation’s long-term model as an example of what early investment in talent can look like, and left us with a question: if this kind of support works, how do we build it at scale?
Starting Early
The Foundation begins its work with young people long before they are expected to make major life decisions. Through its Scholarship Programme, learners as young as Grade 6 are selected not only for academic performance but for qualities that reflect a deeper kind of promise. These include quiet leadership, resilience, and a natural curiosity that strengthens when supported with care and consistency.
Since 2008, the programme has supported more than 620 Scholars from across South Africa. Each is placed in one of 33 partner schools where academic support is paired with personal and entrepreneurial development. Scholars are introduced to new ways of thinking about their role in the world and gradually begin to see their own agency and potential more clearly.
One Grade 9 Scholar shared that the experience “boosted my confidence and self-belief… and gave me the motivation to set higher goals and pursue them with passion” (p.24). That shift did not happen overnight. It came through consistent exposure, patient coaching, and a sense of belonging. The programme allows young people to grow at a pace that supports lasting development. In the process, they begin to take their ideas more seriously and grow into the sense that they can lead something meaningful.
3. Coaching Talent into Confidence
The belief at the Foundation is that potential can be nurtured and developed into purpose. Through a combination of real-life coaching, exposure, and structured learning, programme participants begin to understand entrepreneurship not as a side interest but as a viable, long-term path.
At the centre of this work is the Foundation’s learning curriculum, built around 14 entrepreneurial competencies. These include opportunity assessment, problem solving, and resilience, among others. The curriculum is not just theoretical. It is embedded into tailored learning journeys that take participants from self-awareness to venture readiness. This is reinforced through coaching models that make the learning personal and practical. Confidence is built through structure, guidance, and meaningful exposure to the world of entrepreneurship.
Staying With Talent Beyond Graduation
When programme participants complete university, they don’t leave the system. They become part of the Association of Allan Gray Fellows, our Alumni, a lifelong community of support. Through the Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Education (EE) Programme, Fellows can access mentorship opportunities as both mentors and mentees, receive coaching through the Ideate Validate (IV) Programme, the Entrepreneurship Academy, and the Creators Programme, and may also access funding opportunities.
In addition to Foundation-led initiatives, Fellows remain connected through peer-driven networks and community-building efforts led by the Association. The Foundation’s continued investment in alumni is not only about supporting entrepreneurs, but about nurturing leaders who drive meaningful change.
Responding to Barriers with a Working Model
Much has been written about the barriers that young people face when trying to build businesses. What often gets overlooked are the working models that are already addressing these challenges in meaningful ways.
The Foundation offers a pathway that addresses several common gaps. In schools where entrepreneurship is rarely taught, the programme introduces these ideas early. In contexts where mentorship is inconsistent, it provides a structured learning journey and connected community. Where access to capital is limited, it provides early-stage support through E Squared. These efforts are not fragmented. They form a coherent developmental system that grows with the individual.
The gap this model addresses is echoed in national data. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, nearly 70% of South African youth express a desire to start businesses, yet fewer than 10% of those ventures survive beyond three years. The issue isn’t a lack of ambition. It’s the absence of structured and sustained support—the kind that allows entrepreneurial intent to take root and grow.
The Foundation’s model shows that when young people are given the right conditions, they begin to think differently about what’s possible. With time, guidance, and practical tools, they can explore, experiment, and shape their futures with clarity and care. This model doesn’t depend on rare genius. It depends on a better system, one designed to make entrepreneurial success achievable, not accidental.
Here is what that system looks like in practice
Recruitment and Programme Reach
The Foundation has reviewed over 140,000 applications since inception, selecting just over 3,300 programme participants across its Scholarship, Fellowship, and Association portfolios. These numbers reflect not just interest, but the scale of its reach and rigour of its selection model.
Venture Pipeline and Economic Outcomes
From pre-launch concepts to ventures generating over R20 million in annual revenue, the model enables founders to grow responsibly and with purpose. Together, these ventures have created nearly 3,000 jobs and improved more than 1.5 million lives.
Entrepreneurial Exposure at Scale
Through initiatives like AGEC, the Foundation supports and democratises entrepreneurial learning beyond its core programmes. These efforts have reached over 224,000 learners and equipped hundreds of teachers to foster entrepreneurship in schools.
The National Playbook: Five Moves to Scale Entrepreneurial Talent
South Africa doesn’t have a shortage of talent; it has a shortage of systems. If we want to build a thriving, inclusive economy, we can’t keep relying on isolated programmes or one-off initiatives. We need a national game plan and one that finds entrepreneurial talent early, backs it for the long haul, and redefines entrepreneurship as a force for nation building. Below are five bold moves that the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country can take to turn untapped potential into unstoppable impact:
- Curriculum Integration
Teach entrepreneurship in grassroots. This is a national imperative, inculcating entrepreneurial spirit into our schooling system and help learners see building businesses as a way to build the country. - Scouting Systems
Talent is everywhere, but opportunity isn’t. We need systems that find and nurture potential early in underserved communities. - Long-Term Founder Support
Fund the person, not just the prototype. Support must span the founder’s full journey with patient capital, mentorship, and strategic guidance. Take the risk and invest in young people. - Impact Tracking
Measure more than profit. Evaluate ventures based on social, ethical, and employment outcomes because responsible entrepreneurship matters. - Cultural Shift
Celebrate entrepreneurs not just as businesspeople, but as nation-builders. Positioning entrepreneurship as a viable career path for young people.
Closing: From Possibility to Participation
The Foundation’s work offers a blueprint for what’s possible when support is consistent, intentional, and long-term.. It treats entrepreneurship not as an isolated outcome, but as a developmental journey that begins early and deepens over time.
This kind of long-term model cannot remain the exception. It holds lessons for how we design national systems that can find and growing talent at scale. With the right infrastructure, more young people can be supported through every stage of growth. They can move from uncertainty to agency, and from ambition to sustained impact.
The opportunity now is not only to replicate this model, but to embed it into the fabric of how we prepare young people for the future. Not because they were born for it, but because we built for it. No DNA. Just RSA.
For this to materialize, it will take coordinated effort across education, policy, business, and civil society. If we are serious about unlocking the full potential of youth entrepreneurship in South Africa, then the next step must be shared: to build systems that carry young people from the first spark of promise to the full arc of possibility.
