Entrepreneurial intention of the youth in Gauteng

M.Com. (Strategic Management)Abstract: Unemployment is a crisis that the South African youth cannot avoid. This requires the youth to consider alternative career options such as entrepreneurship. The entrepreneurial intention of the youth may be affected by different factors. Entrepreneurial intention is found to determine an individual’s behaviour to engage in entrepreneurial activities in the future. This was a quantitative research study using self-administered questionnaires as the measuring instrument. The study focused on investigating the reasons for the low entrepreneurial intention among the youth in Gauteng. The sample consisted of youth in Gauteng, aged 18-34 years, working full time, part time, self-employed, unemployed or enrolled as a student at the time of the study. The data was collected from two institutions, namely Johannesburg Digital Ambassadors (JDA) and Reunert College within the Gauteng region. The statistical analysis included a frequency distribution and cross-tabulation was performed with a chi-square ("²) test. Lastly, regression analysis was conducted. The hypotheses were tested and illustrated that six (personal attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, general youth challenges, financial youth challenges and youth entrepreneurial support) out of the seven variables (all the above, with the addition of youth educational challenges) had a significant relationship with entrepreneurial intention. The findings show that respondents had the intention to start a business, but the act of becoming an entrepreneur was not yet evident among the Gauteng youth. The findings also show that entrepreneurial education does not have an impact on entrepreneurial intention. Alternative tools need to be developed to transform the entrepreneurial intention of the youth into the act of becoming an entrepreneur. The study recommends that both the public and private sectors need to find the tools to transfer business knowledge and promote entrepreneurship as a career option among the youth, taking into consideration the youth that are not enrolled in an educational institution. The public sector should introduce incubators that can assist the youth with starting and growing a business. Universities and colleges should form partnerships with the private sector to allow for practical and theoretical learning for the youth