Young Entrepreneurs Incubation Programme and Business Skills Development Programme

Objective

To assist in the development of locally-owned micro, small, and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) with information access and business opportunities that integrate them into African Rainbow Mineral’s value chain.

Overview and Main Activities

Based on the Black Economic Empowerment Act, African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) provides a combination of business opportunities and training to integrate young entrepreneurs from mining regions into its value chain. The initiative has two components: the Incubation Programme and the Business Skills Development Programme.

Incubation Programme:

ARM provides young entrepreneurs-to-be from mining regions with assistance on the feasibility and analysis of their business ideas as well as mentoring and counselling.

Business Skills Development Programme :

ARM identifies development areas for local entrepreneurs and provides business skills training from experts in basic bookkeeping, business management, practical marketing and costing and pricing. ARM has also developed an MSME portal to increase entrepreneurs’ access to large business procurement in the region.

ARM works in collaboration with the Department of Education, which provides the educational curriculum, and teachers from public institutions such as the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA). These educators help with business training and business registrations within the local community.

Success Factors and Challenges

Most critical success factors:

• Collaborative partnership with the community
• Access to business opportunities that promote entrepreneurship

Main challenges:

• Finding micro, small, and medium sized enterprises in the market while managing their expectations on the outcome of the programme

About the Organization

Website: www.arm.co.za
Sector: Mining and Metals
Size (number of employees): 10,000 – 50,000
Headquarters: Sandton, South Africa