Image: LexisNexisThe Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) is intensifying efforts to confront one of South Africa’s most pressing challenges: graduate unemployment. The faculty is launching a new book to champion entrepreneurship education with practical solutions to economic empowerment.
Titled Entrepreneurship Education: A South African Perspective on Supporting Small Business Development, the two-volume publication will officially be launched on 5 August 2025. It comes at a time when the country’s youth unemployment crisis is deepening.
The Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) released by Statistics South Africa in May 2025 revealed that unemployment among youth, aged 15–34, stood at a staggering 46.1% in the first quarter of 2025 - an increase from 44.6% in the last quarter of 2024.
The book is co-edited by Professor Michelle Esau, Dean of the EMS faculty, and Walter Geach. The publication is the faculty’s first interdisciplinary book on entrepreneurship education.
It features contributions from scholars across at least six academic disciplines and targets students, academics, policymakers and small business owners alike.
Describing the book as “pragmatic,” Prof Esau emphasised its focus on real-world challenges small- and micro-enterprises face.
“I believe this book contributes meaningfully to the broader discourse on entrepreneurship education. It addresses the problems, the challenges and the complexities, but also highlights the opportunities within the small- and micro-enterprise landscape,” she said. “This is not just another scholarly text that reiterates known issues. It presents practical solutions rooted in the South African context,” said Prof Esau.
Prof Esau explained that the book was written to empower aspiring and established entrepreneurs and to inform those working within policy and regulatory frameworks that impact small business development.
“The government could find real value in this book. Several chapters focus on the regulatory environment and provide reflections based on the lived experiences of entrepreneurs. Despite frameworks meant to support small businesses, many still face unnecessary hurdles. This book identifies those gaps and offers recommendations to improve the system.”
Beyond policy and theory, the book encourages entrepreneurship as a strategic response to poverty and unemployment, highlighting how small business development can unlock innovation, service improvements, and new products that respond directly to market needs.
Prof Esau said she hoped the publication would spark collaboration across academia, the government and the private sector in shaping a more supportive ecosystem for South Africa’s emerging entrepreneurs.
