At Michael Mount Waldorf School, entrepreneurship is being taught as more than building a business.

It is being framed as a way of understanding people, identifying challenges, and creating meaningful solutions.

The school’s sustainable entrepreneurship programme gives Grade 10 learners the opportunity to explore design thinking, while developing non-governmental organisation and social enterprise concepts rooted in real community needs.

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Headmaster William Bester said the programme has its origins in The Bench Leadership Year, a post-matric entrepreneurship initiative developed to help young people use a gap year meaningfully through leadership and innovation.

Although the original programme later closed, the vision remained. “We wanted to bring that experience into the school environment and make it accessible to younger learners.”

The programme starts with self-reflection. He added that learners participate in a life design process that encourages them to think about who they want to become, what values matter to them, and what kind of contribution they want to make.

“They then move into the five stages of design thinking, working in teams to choose a social issue, conduct research, define the problem, and generate possible solutions.”

Bester highlighted that among this year’s projects was a concept aimed at improving South Africa’s taxi commuting experience through booking and payment systems designed to reduce long queues. “

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Other groups explored issues such as gender-based violence, discrimination, and animal welfare.”

He explained that once ideas were refined, learners developed complete business concepts, including branding, marketing plans, financial models, and digital prototypes.

Bester pointed out that the final presentations are delivered before teachers and peers. Industry guest speakers are also brought into the programme to expose learners to different perspectives on entrepreneurship, innovation, and purpose.

For Bester, one of the strongest indicators of success has been learner engagement.

“Learners have requested more time for the programme and additional speaker sessions, reflecting growing enthusiasm for practical, purpose-led learning experiences.”

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