Capacity building in small business management for new literates through action research

Abstract

This article reports on a community engagement project by the University of South Africa’s Department of Adult Basic Education to address the challenges faced by new literates in establishing and managing projects and small businesses. The main objective of the article was to assess how capacity and training workshops have been used as tools to empower individuals and groups who have just completed basic education to start and run successful business. In assessing the impact of the Kha Ri Gude Mass Literacy Campaign (KMLC) on the lives of graduates, it came to the attention of the Department that the graduates have taken initiatives to start SMMEs and other projects in their communities but the lack of business and project management skills was causing failures in a number of the initiatives. The qualitative method of enquiry using multiple case studies was applied in the article. The main instruments applied for data collection were individual and focus group interviews and observations. The initial data collection in three provinces in 2013 served as the baseline where the requests were made and the need analysis conducted. The finding indicates that the interventions have now helped the graduates to start and run SMMEs effectively, access markets for their products, form networks, register individual businesses and cooperatives and writing funding proposals among other skills. The articles recommend for the initiative to be rolled out in all the other provinces as it has proven to be successful in the areas it has been piloted.

Keywords

• development
• education
• entrepreneurship
• intervention
• training