Tugela Pre-Vocational School uses ABCD process to see entrepreneurial opportunities

"Being an entrepreneur and having your own business is such a priority in today's economic environment, and even if you have formal university training or technical skills, some people still struggle to find jobs."

August 19, 2018

Zianne Leibrandt 2 minutes read

Siyanda Zulu, Manelisi Phungula and Nkululeko Chikwapa listen to Anel du Preez.

Anel du Preez from Canned Culture Communication visited Tugela Pre-Vocational School on July 23.

Her intention was to facilitate an Asset Based Citizen Led Development (ABCD) process with the Grade 10 learners at the school.

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“Being an entrepreneur and having your own business is such a priority in today’s economic environment, and even if you have formal university training or technical skills, some people still struggle to find jobs.”

The ABCD process provides participants with the tools necessary to learn what they can offer – a way of looking at their glass and finding it half full, not half empty.

For years, Anel has asked community leaders what they need.

“Volunteers parachute in and out and feel hurt when a project is not successful after three months, or complain that beneficiaries have a sense of entitlement and don’t appreciate the things done for them.”

With ABCD, the focus is entirely different than in needs-based development.

“You find out what the community has, who they are, and what they can do with what they have. When you focus on the half-full part of the glass, you empower people with the ability to act, because they have something to act with. Only then do we provide external assistance they require to complete their own process.”

This means communities take responsibility for their own lives and don’t sit around and wait for ‘someone’ to fix it.

The ABCD session was a small part of a larger entrepreneurship programme, developed by Wilna Lombard and other teachers at Tugela Pre-Vocational School.

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Its goal is to develop entrepreneurial ability in learners before they leave school.

“For this session, we provided them with the tools to see what they have in the form of skills and assets, and then plan how to use it to start a business, solve a problem or even find a job.”

It was a creative day where learners thought outside of the box, identifying their self-worth and seeing their community assets in a different way.