Lucky Vele, a PGDip Financial Management student, in the Department of Accountancy, at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) has been selected as one of 100 entrepreneurs in the world to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summer School (GESS) 2018.

The summit, which is a seven-day program, will be held in Cape Town, September 9 – 15. The summit will see thirty-five young South Africans joining 105 fellow global change-agents from Germany, China and Mexico on a seven-day programme to develop innovative and entrepreneurial solutions to solve the global challenge of consumption and sustainability.

“The Global Entrepreneurship Program appealed to me because of its international context and it is exactly why I chose to join the program. I wanted to continue to work on projects in multicultural teams and study in new environments and the Global Entrepreneurship Program was the only program which gathered all of these components,” said Vele.

At GESS, Vele will work in international and interdisciplinary teams on region-specific problems to develop his own idea that presents both a sustainable impact on society and a self-sustaining, profitable business model.

“I am excited because I will be able to turn an idea into a real project and be well prepared to create a start-up right after the program,” added Vele.

GESS is organised in conjunction with six leading university-based entrepreneurship centres in Munich, Shanghai, Mexico City and Cape Town. This will be the first time the event will be coming to Africa, bringing together 140 young people from different nationalities.

GESS Cape Town 2018 is endorsed by the Department of Higher Education and Training through the Entrepreneurship Development programme in Higher Education.