Courses

Students are enrolled in both of the courses below, which are taken in parallel. One is a classroom-based course and the other involves fieldwork where participants will work with the entrepreneurs. Auditing is not an option for these courses. The EESA program takes place at the University of the Western Cape campus in South Africa.

Supporting Emerging Enterprises

(2 credits, graduate or undergraduate)

This course introduces students to the South African context, township entrepreneurship, the basics of the consulting process, the SEE consulting model, and creative yet practical approaches to addressing managerial issues in emerging enterprises. 

Entrepreneurship Field Experience

(2 credits, graduate or undergraduate)

This course provides interaction with township entrepreneurs over six weeks as part of structured consulting engagements. Consulting engagements start at the same time as the class meetings. Teams of five or six students are assigned to work with two entrepreneurial businesses. Team members must develop a relationship with the entrepreneur, establish trust, learn as much as possible about the entrepreneur and his/her venture, determine priorities, select tasks that can be accomplished within the time of the consulting engagement, perform the necessary research and analysis on possible solutions to these tasks, design detailed solutions and related action plans, and most importantly, implement the solutions. Teams are mentored by three faculty members. A final consulting report summarizes the teams’ assessment of each venture and the set of deliverables produced for the clients. Students must maintain journals of their experiences.