Entrepreneurship education as an intervention solution to youth unemployment in South Africa

Youth unemployment has reached an intolerable level in South Africa (SA) since the advent of the new dispensation that was ushered in by the first democratic general elections in 1994. This high level of unemployment amongst young people is attributed mainly to a lack of entrepreneurship teachings at an early age of schooling. Teaching entrepreneurship subjects at primary schools and creating an entrepreneurship culture in SA has become crucial to motivating learners to become entrepreneurs. Using the qualitative research method, the key aspect of this study is to establish whether encouraging entrepreneurial teaching in primary schools at an early stage will create a culture of entrepreneurship that exposes young learners to entrepreneurial opportunities. A phenomenology was chosen nested in social constructivism to explore the participants' experiences of entrepreneurship culture in primary schools, with twenty-seven participants from five primary schools in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM) purposefully selected in varying categories that include learners, educators, principals, and school governing bodies (SGBs). Face-to-face interviews using semi-structured interview questions captured the participants' lived experiences. Through the descriptive, thematic, and phenomenological data analysis, the findings advise on how primary schools could create an entrepreneurship culture to encourage learners to become entrepreneurs as an alternative career preference by applying three cardinal pillars of extra training for educators on entrepreneurship, allocation of extra time to teach entrepreneurship and incorporating the teaching of entrepreneurship in the curriculum.