Christel House learners discover a talent for entrepreneurship
19-MAY-09
Friday 15 May was a special day for grade ten and eleven learners from Christel House South Africa (CHSA), a not-for-profit school for disadvantaged children in Ottery, as they showcased their entrepreneurial talents to parents, teachers and CHSA sponsors in an event termed Marketing/Entrepreneurship Development Day.
Our school curriculum does not currently cover entrepreneurship as a subject,” said Christel House Director of Development and Marketing, Sharon Williams, “but we wanted to be able to introduce our learners to the concept in a unique way and we did so by letting them put their own skills to the test.”
CHSA invited Professor Tim Scales, who is the Director of Indiana Universities’ Entrepreneurship Centre, to come and share some of his expertise with the learners of CHSA.
“Professor Scales arrived in South Africa five days before the Marketing/Entrepreneurship Development day and in that time he managed to teach our learners how to manufacture their own products to sell,” said Williams.
Professor Scales admits that it is not an easy task to teach these 15-17 year old learners everything there is to know about entrepreneurship in five days, but according to him, they were so eager to learn that he managed to teach them his entire entrepreneurship curriculum in that time.
“A couple of years ago I decided to develop a unique entrepreneurship curriculum specifically targeted for high-school learners. While doing research on what the curriculum would include and which schools I would target, I came across Christel House – (Christel House also has a school in Indianapolis),” explained Professor Scales.
In his research Professor Scales visited many schools of Christel House in countries like Mexico and India, and developed the curriculum with Christel House students in mind.
The curriculum teaches learners the basics of entrepreneurship while highlighting the importance of creating something unique to market.
“I was excited to continue my work in Christel House South Africa and grew even more thrilled when I met the learners and started working with them,” he said.
Professor Scales explained that the curriculum covers the five Ps of marketing, which includes planning (he spoke to them about the importance of a business plan), products, pricing, promotion and packaging and teaches learners the importance of how to sell well and practise customer service.
“The learners took to the subject matter like ducks to water and many of them had a natural ability for it. I do believe though that this is a skill that can be taught to anyone, with the right training, anyone can become an entrepreneur and the CHSA learners showed enormous potential,” he said.
Martha Lepswali, a 15-year old grade ten learner, was ecstatic as she explained what kind of products they had prepared to sell for Marketing/Entrepreneurial Development Day.
“Professor Scales taught us how to make different products but encouraged us to use our own creativity to make our products unique. We made wind socks, soap, coasters from wood and jewellery,” she explained.
Professor Scales boasted that the learners did really well adding that the day brought in profits of almost R1000.00.
“It’s wonderful to see how all the learners put into practice what I taught them, many of them went out of their way, using very creative persuasions to sell their products, (even belting out a song or dance here and their to attract customers). We also received really wonderful praise by parents and teachers who were present,” said Scales.
Williams agreed that the day was extremely successful. “I think it gave us a good understanding of how our young learners really want to be able to create their own success one day by becoming entrepreneurs,” she said, adding that students like Martha were already thinking about how to take their entrepreneurship training further.
“I want to be an entrepreneur, professor Scales has helped me realise that I can do it, and that if I have a unique product or service and know how to sell it, I can be a success.
"I want to start by investigating what products I can make, maybe I’ll make fruit bowels or maybe something else – I’m not sure yet, but I know it’s all about the planning, I need to go out there and find out what will work best,” said Lepswali.
For details on the Christel House South Africa and to find out how to make contributions kindly call 072 4373 002 or visit Christel House.
