The Significance of Partnerships in Entrepreneurship Education: A Case of South African Universities

Abstract

South Africa faces persistently high youth and general unemployment rates, prompting entrepreneurship education to be positioned as a strategic intervention. Institutions of higher education play a critical role in this agenda; however, they cannot achieve this independently and therefore rely on strategic partnerships with key stakeholders. The purpose of this study is to examine the current partnerships that institutions of higher education have that aim to support entrepreneurial education and activity. This study is underpinned by the resource mobilization theory, and it adopted a qualitative document analysis of academic articles and institutional reports has been used and analysed using ATLAS.ti 24 software following the thematic analysis approach. Findings reveal that there are several strategic partnerships from both the public and private sectors that support institutions of higher education with curriculum reform, financial support, mentorship, training, guest lecturing and other non-monetary support. It is recommended that the partnerships should be used more effectively for the benefit of the students. The theoretical and practical contribution of the study is the adoption of the resource mobilization theory. A baseline study should be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the partnerships institutions have.