UJ looks to Finland to encourage local tech startups

22 February 2017 Editor's Choice News

Speaking at a ceremony at UJ’s Auckland Park campus on 31 January, vice-chancellor Prof Ihron Rensburg explained: “We want to see our students and other young people start businesses valuable to the economy. We want them to create jobs and grow local economies rather than to be looking for employment. Obviously we train them to be ready for the workplace. However, we want far more young people to plan and start businesses, understanding what it takes, how it needs to be done, and what support is available to make it a success.”

Based in Helsinki, Laurea University is known for effectively boosting youth entrepreneurship and services to youth across regions in Finland with its EER entrepreneurial ecosystem programme. Helsinki is also home to SLUSH, the annual global technology startup conference, held at the end of November each year.

“In partnership with Laurea University, we want to encourage far more UJ students setting up small enterprises of their own, especially tech startups,” Rensburg continued. “In Helsinki, about ten thousand young entrepreneurs attend the SLUSH conference every year, which is an extraordinary event. They present their startups to venture capitalists for funding and further development. Many of the startups are founded by Laurea students.”

UJ is exploring an agreement to bring this event to Johannesburg, Rensburg says. “For an entrepreneur, going from a working concept to a viable business is a huge challenge. We want to see young people from across Africa present their startups to venture capital and angel capital, and qualify for funding to get their businesses up and running. We hope to start with South African youth entrepreneurs and go from there.”

Prof Roy Marcus, UJ council chairperson, commented: “The Finnish people have a lot to teach us. They have developed very elegant models for creating startup businesses in science and technology. Laurea offers UJ the opportunity to create collaborations, not only between our universities, but also between South African and Finnish businesses, which is a very exciting aspect of this relationship.”

For more information contact Therese van Wyk, University of Johannesburg, +27 (0)11 559 6332, theresevw@uj.ac.za, www.uj.ac.za

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