TEN VUT FUTURE ENTREPRENEURS HAILED FOR PARTICIPATING IN ONLINE ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAMME
By: Themba Nyovane – 19 June 2023
The Vaal University of Technology (VUT)’s Faculty of Management Sciences (FMS) recently recognized ten students from its various departments who took part in the online Technological Higher Education Network South Africa (THENSA) Entrepreneurship Programme 2022.
The programme commenced in July 2022 and was designed exclusively for first-year university students. Students gathered with the Faculty of Management Sciences Executive Dean, Professor,Prof Chengedzai Mafini, Selina Mahlangu (Senior Administrator), Onica Matsheke (Entrepreneurship Lecturer and Enactus-VUT team Faculty Advisor), and Dr Maseko (Accountancy Head of Department) to celebrate their achievement at the VUT Sisonke Student Training Restaurant.
Of the ten student who participated in the programme, seven (7) of them were awarded with certificates of achievement. Notably, Bonolo Alrinah Makgatha, now a second year Auditing student obtained the highest average in the Faculty of Management Sciences.
“While others are thinking to climb the organisational ladders, entrepreneurs are building their own organisational ladders and are becoming employers”, these are the sentiments that were echoed by an elated Executive Dean of the FMS, Prof Mafini while delivering the opening and welcoming remarks. He emphasized that, “Entrepreneurship has become a very important area or discipline because it offers greater solutions to our economy as a country.” He also encouraged students to exercise their skills by opening businesses and to join the Enactus VUT team which by far excels in entrepreneurship, adding that they should not undermine the power of skills they have acquired in the THENSA programme and should consider it as yet another important milestone in their lives.
The THENSA Online Entrepreneurship Programme offers an opportunity to create a new generation of young people who will become job creators within their own communities, giving them the kind of opportunities that will make an impact in the growth of South Africa’s economy. It also encourages students to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and approach as they prepare for the workforce, and provides a great opportunity for exposure to multiple perspectives and cultures of business thinking and business doing from society and economies that have once and still are as challenged as South Africa.