The University of the Free State (UFS) is proudly hosting this year’s opening session of the national Student Entrepreneurship Week (#SEW2020), which takes place from 2 to 4 November 2020. With the theme, African Entrepreneurship through Technology, the opening will be presented virtually and streamed by the UFS from Bloemfontein on 2 November 2020.

In addition to the morning’s welcome addresses, the programme is dedicated to showcasing the university’s variety of entrepreneurial projects. The UFS will feature a virtual entrepreneur market, interview young studentpreneurs from different fields, and hold panel discussions and presentations, either live or pre-recorded.

The UFS will also showcase 11 business projects that attained success through academic support. Some of the UFS’ studentpreneurs; including Refilwe Xaba (founder and CEO of GloLooks), Jason Viviers (JV Perfume Company), Christopher Rothmann (co-founder LiquidCulture, and Refilwe Mogale (co-founder Ahang Amalgamate Construction Company) will tell their stories on how the university supported them in their respective journeys from idea to commercialisation to the market.

“Our entrepreneurship strategy focuses specifically on three core groups where direct interventions are made and tailor-made interventions are required. These are undergraduate students, postgraduate students and research groups. What makes the UFS approach unique is specifically
focused on honours students as a large cohort that has a direct impact on postgraduate enrolments, which is an enabler for a research-led university. We are already seeing the results in the incredible business projects produced by our students – some of which will be showcased during the National Student Entrepreneurship Week,” says Gerard Verhoef, Director: Contracts and Innovation at the UFS.

For the first time since the National Entrepreneurship Week was established in 2017, the Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) programme will be hosting #SEW2020 as a combined national and multi-institutional event. Twenty-one universities and three technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges will be sharing one common programme that runs from Monday, 2 November and wraps up on Thursday, 5 November.

The events can be accessed live on the Whova app and on Facebook: @EDHEStudententrepreneurship, allowing students to watch at their convenience.

More information on the Student Entrepreneurship Week can be found at https://edhe.co.za/