The University of Johannesburg (UJ) aims to incubate thousands of new youth-driven businesses in the technology sector over the next few years, in partnership with the Laurea University of Applied Sciences, in Finland.
The partnership will see business training being facilitated, students going on exchange to learn from the different environments, and Johannesburg possibly hosting its own version of SLUSH ? the popular annual global technology start-up conference held in Helsinki.
"We want to see our students and other young people start businesses valuable to the economy," says UJ vice-chancellor professor Ihron Rensburg, who put specific emphasis on tech start-ups.
"Obviously we train them to be ready for the workplace. However, we want far more young people to plan and start businesses, understanding what it takes, how it needs to be done, and what support is available to make it a success."
Laurea University is known for effectively boosting youth entrepreneurship and services to youth across regions in Finland with its various entrepreneurial programmes.
Professor Jouni Koski, president of Laurea University, says the universities will run exchange programmes between them and do research and development work together.
"There are also good opportunities for funding from the European Union. We are keen to focus on developing cooperation between universities, regions and cities in South Africa. This is an important part of what we do at Laurea University, and we noticed that UJ is already doing that very well," says Koski.
Rensburg says: "In Helsinki, about 10 000 young entrepreneurs attend the SLUSH conference every year, where they present their start-ups to venture capitalists. Many of the start-ups are founded by Laurea students.
"UJ is exploring an agreement to bring this event to Johannesburg. We want to see young people from across Africa present their start-ups to venture and angel capital funders. We hope to start with South African youth entrepreneurs and go from there."
Professor Roy Marcus, UJ council chairperson, says the university and students will learn a lot from their Finnish counterparts, who "have developed very elegant models for creating start-up businesses in science and technology".
He adds: "Laurea offers UJ the opportunity to create collaborations, not only between our universities, but also between South African and Finnish businesses, which is a very exciting aspect of this relationship."
Rensburg says the partnership is another part of the university's commitment to developing youth entrepreneurship in the city. Last year, UJ, in collaboration with the City of Johannesburg, trained over a thousand unemployed youths through the Digital Ambassadors Programme, who in turn trained nearly 400 000 community members in basic online skills, using the city's free WiFi hotspots.
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