“Youth Enterprising”: Johannesburg Youth’s Motivation, Perceptions and Experiences Regarding Entrepreneurship and Services Provided by the Government and the Private Sector
| dc.contributor.author | Phofi, Caroline | |
| dc.contributor.co-supervisor | Pretorius, Edmarie | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Dube, Nkosiyazi | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-07-29T13:43:33Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-07-29T13:43:33Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023-06 | |
| dc.department | Department of Social Work | |
| dc.description | A thesis submitted to the Department of Social Work, School of Human and Community Development, Faculty of Humanities, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, In fulfilment of the academic requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in 2023. | |
| dc.description.abstract | Enterprising and entrepreneurship have become one of the solutions to addressing the challenges of the current economic state in South Africa that seem to have proven to lock some of the youth, especially the disadvantaged youth within Johannesburg, in the cycle of poverty, and unemployment. Although the largest group of youth entering the labour market have shown to be educated and suited for South Africa’s global competitiveness, jobs seem to remain competitive in the formal sector. The study aimed to explore youth enterprising, the motivating factors, perceptions, and experiences of youth towards services that the government and the private sector provides. With the significance of entrepreneurship in the South African economy, there is a need to explore and investigate the contribution of entrepreneurs in the economy of South Africa and how can government and private sector support entrepreneurial activities among the youth to curb unemployment and poverty. A qualitative approach based on the interpretive paradigm was employed to explore the topic of youth enterprising. A case study design was best suited to achieving the objectives of the study, which sought to understand youth enterprise regarding youth’s subjectively constructed reality. The selected case studies were selected from five organisations. These organisations mostly engage in youth development programmes aiming to capacitate youth with psycho-social and entrepreneurial skills, and to provide start-up funding. All the participants for the interviews (n=14), focus group discussion (n=8) and respondents of the questionnaire (16) were selected from Organisation A. The four key informants were from the other four organisations (Organisation B, C, D and E) and were only interviewed. Purposive sampling was adopted to select all the 26 research participants comprising of youth, youth workers, managers and key informants, and the 16 youth participants were selected for the structured questionnaire. The methods of data collection were semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and a structured questionnaire. Four different semi-structured interview guides were used as research instruments with all these different groups of participants. A focus group guide was adopted to facilitate the focus group discussion with eight youths. A total of 16 youths completed the hard copy of a structured questionnaire. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the national restriction, some potential participants did not want to engage in face-to-face interviews, therefore an online questionnaire was offered as an option so that the research could have more participants to validate the data collection. A structured questionnaire was employed to elicit the respondents’ responses to the four aspects related to motivation, ability, entrepreneurial opportunities, and resources associated with basic entrepreneurial success components. Results from the questionnaire were analysed using descriptive statistics. Data from the different interviews and focus group discussions were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that business and entrepreneurial skills should be integrated not only into economic sciences but also within the education sector's human sciences and social work courses. Participants mentioned that the role of the government and private sector in youth development and entrepreneurial services is vital. The study findings aided with the development of practice principles and guidelines to be used by social workers and other stakeholders in their programmatic interventions with youth entrepreneurs. | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | University of Witwatersrand scholarship - Humanities PhD Scholarship: Melon | |
| dc.description.submitter | MM2024 | |
| dc.faculty | Faculty of Humanities | |
| dc.identifier | http://orcid-org/0000-0002-4420-1301 | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Phofi, Caroline. (2023). “Youth Enterprising”: Johannesburg Youth’s Motivation, Perceptions and Experiences Regarding Entrepreneurship and Services Provided by the Government and the Private Sector. [PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WIReDSpace. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/39889 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10539/39889 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg | |
| dc.rights | ©2023 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. | |
| dc.rights.holder | University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg | |
| dc.school | School of Human and Community Development | |
| dc.subject | Youth enterprise | |
| dc.subject | Motivation | |
| dc.subject | Perceptions | |
| dc.subject | Experiences | |
| dc.subject | Entrepreneurship | |
| dc.subject | Services | |
| dc.subject | Government | |
| dc.subject | Private sector | |
| dc.subject | Non-government organisation | |
| dc.subject | UCTD | |
| dc.subject.other | SDG-8: Decent work and economic growth | |
| dc.title | “Youth Enterprising”: Johannesburg Youth’s Motivation, Perceptions and Experiences Regarding Entrepreneurship and Services Provided by the Government and the Private Sector | |
| dc.type | Thesis |