Pioneered as inter-dependent programmes, Step Up 2 A Start Up and Smartbucks (Mind your Moolah) have merged. This collaborative effort will assist in growing the much-needed entrepreneurial skills base amongst South African youth while reinforcing the importance of financial literacy as a means to address the increasing unemployment rate.
Designed to motivate and educate high school learners towards an inspired and fulfilling future, the Step Up 2 A Start Up and Smartbucks programmes have evolved into two of the most recognised national edutainment initiatives in South Africa.
Earmarked as important fixtures in the school calendar, these curricula aligned programmes have equipped more than 150 000 learners in the last 6 years with tools and information to set them on the right path to early financial emancipation.
"We need the creativity, enthusiasm and energy of young people to move the country forward. It is a matter of nurturing these qualities and steering them in a direction that will give them an opportunity to become the financial guru’s, business creators, industrial game-changers and employers of tomorrow”, says Martin Sweet, Manging Director at Primestars.
Smartbucks and Step Up 2 A Start Up will be offered to participating schools as a multi-stage learning process and this will ensure that learners are equipped with the basic fundamentals of financial literacy which will include how to budget, managing debt, saving and spending wisely whilst also building entrepreneurial prowess to help them harness their future, build start-ups, identify and solve problems and have the ability to create employment.
“In 2019 we will be targeting 12 000 learners for both the Step Up 2 A Start Up and Smartbucks (Mind your Moolah) programmes,” concludes Sweet.