Abstract

NYAMUNDA, John  and  VAN DER WESTHUIZEN, Thea. Youth Unemployment: The role of Transformative Learning in making the youth explore entrepreneurship. JCMAN [online]. 2018, vol.15, n.1, pp.314-343. ISSN 1815-7440.

This article will discuss a longitudinal study over a 12-week period in 2017 to investigate Transformative Learning of university students in their final year of study at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban South Africa. The sample participated in a systemic action learning and action research programme called SHAPE (Shifting Hope, Activating Potential Entrepreneurship). The article focused on the Transformative Learning stage called Disorienting Dilemma which is a personal crisis which arises because the old way of knowing or doing does not make sense anymore. Its major value in entrepreneurship is that, it is one of the exogenous factors which triggers entrepreneurial intentions and also acts as a catalyst to converting intention into entrepreneurial action. To facilitate Transformative Learning, this article will also discuss the relationship between Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy and Disorientating Dilemma. Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy is made up of multiple variables which are opportunity recognition, relationship self-efficacy, managerial self-efficacy and tolerance self-efficacy. The investigation found a statistically significant increase in female participants' evaluation of their own experience of Disorienting Dilemmas in the following dimensions of Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy; opportunity identification, developing business relationships, managing own business and own ability to cope with stress and pressure associated with starting or owning a business after attending the SHAPE training programme. The only statistically significant improvement in Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy for males was in their identification of business opportunities. The gendered differences experienced from the SHAPE programme are ascribable to cultural factors which expose males to more entrepreneurial activities than females. One of the key findings of the study is that, after the SHAPE training programme, males and females show equal inclination towards Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy.

Keywords : Disorienting Dilemma; Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy; Entrepreneurial training; Transformative Learning; SHAPE training programme; Youth Entrepreneurship and Youth unemployment.

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