The E3 (Entrepreneurship, Employability and Education) initiative is the result of a number of key country strategies, including the National Development Plan (NDP) which identifies education as being central to enhancing the entrepreneurial capacity of the nation. The NDP states that courses should be designed, introduced and taught to promote and instil an entrepreneurial mindset in every learner.
The E3 initiative commenced during 2018 with 73 pilot schools teaching using project-based learning methodologies to unlock an entrepreneurial mindset, provide iterative, reflective learning opportunities and develop 21st Century learning skills and competences. The pilot continues in 2019 and will include a further 180 schools over the next three years to create a “tribe” of motivated teachers who will have been involved in developing and implementing creative, fun, project based learning activities. Eventually these learning methodologies will be rolled out to all schools, in all subjects and all grades.
The goal of E3 is to change the education system so that it produces a new generation of engaged citizens, prepared through their schooling, to build the economic engine of South Africa. In this way SA will become an entrepreneurial nation that will simultaneously reduce poverty and unemployment. The outcomes that the programme anticipates to achieve (by 2030) are for all learners to have developed 21st Century skills, knowledge and have self-reliant, solution-oriented mindsets to prepare them to complete school with the motivation to continue studying, be able to be employed or to start their own enterprises.
The Sector Plan on Entrepreneurship in Schools (EiS) was launched during the DBE Sector Lekgotla on 22 January 2018, and is located in the Curriculum Implementation and Quality Improvement GET Directorate. The EiS (now named E3) Operational Committee comprises of representatives from the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT), the New Leaders Foundation (NLF) and the Community and Individual Development Association (CIDA).
“Our value proposition is that we provide the platform for all education initiatives working with DBE schools who are striving to bring 21st Century skills into the pedagogy. Included in this process is the need for all learners to develop curious, enquiring, empathetic minds. They will do this in every subject by being encouraged by the teacher to conceptualize a need, develop a solution and design a project that meets the needs of their environment and that fulfils a purpose within themselves. Teachers will create the opportunities for fun and fascination and provide the direction and guidelines for the 3 stages of conceptualization, process and project outcome. From a young age learners will grow their empathy, become caring, and develop a continuous problem-solving mindset that is driven by what they care about”, said Dr Mamiki Maboya, Deputy Director-General for Curriculum Policy, Support and Monitoring.