Skills for Employability is the British Council’s flagship programme for skills development and vocational education. As part of Skills for Employability programme, British Council runs Enterprise Challenge competitions in various countries around the globe. The challenges highlight the importance of enterprise and encourage excellence, innovation and the use of technology.

The national winning teams from Bangladesh, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Pakistan, South Africa, Turkey and Uzbekistan participated in the Global Virtual Enterprise Challenge in 2012. The winners of this year’s British Council Global Virtual Enterprise Challenge are African Pride – three students from Gudu SS School in Vryheid, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. Faced with the challenge, "If the Olympic / Paralympic Games were to take place in your country, what business would you develop?", Zamile Ndlovu, S’lungile Mlambo and Snethemba Mdlalose drew inspiration from the beautiful traditional beadwork worn within their Zulu community, to develop a business that would ‘promote pride in South Africa and its culture.

The girls’ mentor was Dr Phumzile Zwane, Principal of Mthashana FET College, who also promoted the challenge to schools and colleges across the region.  Dr Zwane was originally asked to work with grade 11 students in just three schools but says ‘I wanted to give more schools the opportunity to get involved, particularly those in the more disadvantaged rural areas that are often overlooked, so I changed and adapted the scope of competition and invited 17 schools to take part. I believe it is very important for students to learn to be independent thinkers and self-starters, and competitions like this one are a great way to motivate students and develop their self-esteem. All those invited to take part were very excited and had an incredibly positive attitude, and they all sent in a business plan.’

Dr Zwane selected African Pride’s business plan, and together they overcame challenging circumstances to join the seven other national finalists at the final judging in London.  Dr Zwane explains:  ‘It was quite difficult to work with the team as the school and college were 80km apart.  But the girls were willing, dedicated and responsible, and were happy to take the long journey to the college after school and at weekends. Even when they got to London I couldn’t get them to go to sleep!  They wanted to keep practising until they were perfect, they were so determined to win.’

The team have been doing beadwork since they were little girls and produce a range of decorative items, such as bracelets, banners, waistbands, ties and tablecloths, for everyday use as well as for special occasions.  Speaking on behalf of her team, Zamile says; ‘It wasn’t difficult to develop the business plan as we had help from teachers and from our mentor.  The only real challenge was juggling schoolwork and the competition - but we managed to keep going because it was what we wanted to do. We promoted the business through posters, flyers, local media and also social media like Facebook.  There was a lot of interest and we sold beads everywhere. We found out that we had won on the internet, and it feels so good.  We are world superstars!’

But winning the prize is not the end of the journey for Dr Zwane and the team. Dr Zwane believes that ‘running the competition was a great way to introduce enterprise and business into schools. For me, the challenge was a pilot project, which I hope to implement across all skills.  These kinds of initiatives help our nation. Also, I cannot express my gratitude for the support from the British Council, which exceeded all our expectations.’

Zamile, S’Lungile and Snethemba are also determined to build upon the experience.  Zamile explains: ‘If we can find funds for the materials, we will carry on and get the business up and running.  We want to start our own beadwork company when we leave school, and would love the opportunity of a scholarship so that we could complete a course in commercial studies. We would advise everyone that, if you have any opportunities like this, you must take them and follow your dreams.

You can see here African Pride’s winning video presentation, along with videos produced by the other seven finalists.