Creating next-generation entrepreneurs

Virgin Unite has teamed up with social entrepreneur Taddy Bletcher, founder of CIDA, South Africa’s first virtually-free institution, to create The Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship, an intensive 18-month training programme for CIDA graduates that aims to launch 30 small businesses each year.

A report by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in 2007 shows that South Africa’s economic growth is under threat because of a shortage of new entrepreneurs.

The Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship works to:
• Identify and nurture individuals with entrepreneurial potential
• Develop potential entrepreneurs in a practical, relevant and holistic way
• Provide students with real-world business skills and mentorship
• Promote entrepreneurship as a desirable career option and
• Support start-ups and micro-enterprises with skills, mentors, services, networks and finance arrangements