Social impact enterprise LifeCo Unltd SA, in partnership with Social Entrepreneurship Akademie, is inviting entrepreneurially-minded university students to apply to the Global Entrepreneurship Summer School (GESS).
Thirty-five young South Africans will join 105 fellow global change-agents from Germany, China and Mexico on a seven-day programme to develop innovative and entrepreneurial solutions to solve the global challenge of consumption.
“GESS is a programme that develops young entrepreneurs, and challenges them to create innovative, high-impact businesses that solve society’s myriad challenges. Through GESS, we are striving to build a generation of champions who will challenge the status quo and go on to change the world,” says Pat Pillay, LifeCo’s chief executive officer. “This year, we are hosting the summer school in Cape Town, which is a huge privilege.”
According to GESS consumption is one of the major drivers responsible for global resource use, environmental pressures and impact on society.
The United Nations has stated that if the worlds’ population should reach 9.6 billion in 2050, we would need almost the equivalent of three planets to support us with natural resources in order to sustain the globe’s current lifestyle. Thus, it is necessary to develop innovative solutions towards this problem and its consequences.
GESS is organised in conjunction with six leading university-based entrepreneurship centres in Munich, Shanghai, Mexico City and Cape Town. This will be the first time the event will be coming to Africa, bringing together 140 young people from different nationalities.
Applications are open until 16 April 2018 (1pm CEST). GESS Cape Town 2018 is endorsed by the Department of Higher Education and Training through the Entrepreneurship Development programme in Higher Education.
