90% of YLED Graduates Say Program Made Them Better Leaders

Ninety percent of surveyed graduates said the Youth Leadership & Entrepreneurship Development (YLED) program made them better leaders. The figure comes from a post-programme survey of 40 learners, presented alongside the October 17 graduation, and it lands against a brutal backdrop: more than 60% of South Africans aged 15 to 24 are unemployed, according to Stats SA.

YLED's founder, Dr Steven Zwane, who is also a senior lecturer at GIBS, has spent 22 years building what he calls a place to practise. The framework is simple. Learners run actual businesses with actual consequences.

This year's three learner-run ventures hit problems most curricula never simulate. One team found that a product could attract strong interest in market research and still sell badly, Zwane wrote in the Sowetan. Another had to answer customers' complaints about quality. Others wrestled with excess stock, pricing, production delays and a teammate who did not deliver.

The stakes were real, even if the enterprises were small. Money had to be accounted for. Customers expected value. Teammates depended on one another. As Zwane put it, a business plan means something different when stock sits unsold.

What does rejection teach a young seller?

One learner at the October 17 graduation described how a string of customer refusals had made her want to stop selling. Her mother reframed it: a customer declining a product is not a judgment of her worth.

Zwane counts that as enterprise education in a single sentence. "Hearing 'no', working out what it means and deciding what to do next is business," he wrote. "It is also growing up."

The learner who hears "no" needs help deciding the next move, he argued. Should she explain the product differently, reconsider the price, improve the offer or find another customer? Learning to make that call is where enterprise begins.

How solid is the evidence?

The survey numbers look strong. Of 40 learners who answered one post-programme question, 90% agreed or strongly agreed that YLED had made them better leaders. Of 40 who answered another, 95% said they were likely or very likely to start a business.

Zwane treats the results cautiously. "I treat these as what they are: perceptions and intentions," he wrote. "They do not prove that businesses will be created, that jobs will follow or that the programme caused the change. Those questions need follow-up, and we are doing it."

One written reflection from the Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge (YEC) carried particular weight: "Before YEC I did not know how to calculate real profit." Zwane's takeaway: a concept becomes useful when applied to money you are personally responsible for. So do teamwork, planning and accountability.

What did learners criticize?

The feedback was not uniformly positive. Some learners described pressure, difficulty being heard and concern about how leadership roles were allocated. Others wanted clearer financial guidance, more practical preparation and better access to support.

Zwane called that criticism a duty, not an inconvenience. "We cannot ask young people to reflect honestly on their decisions while shielding our own from scrutiny," he wrote. He drew a hard line between a demanding experience and one where a learner feels unable to speak.

What should schools, business and funders do?

Zwane laid out three assignments:

• Schools: let learners test ideas on real customers, and mark the quality of their reasoning, record-keeping and teamwork, not only their sales.
• Business: give people, not only money. An accountant who sits with learners over their books, or an entrepreneur who explains a hard pricing decision, is worth more when they keep coming back all year.
• Funders: pay for the unglamorous parts — facilitators, mentors, learning materials, the cost of taking part and credible evaluation — then ask what changed after learners criticized the program.

The skills at stake extend beyond business, Zwane argued. The learner who becomes an engineer, a teacher, an accountant or a public servant will also need to understand problems, work with others, use resources responsibly and act when the answer is uncertain. His closing challenge to anyone serving young people: before asking them to create jobs, give them room to practise — and the humility to learn from them.