Abstracts

25 education (RSA, 2019a). Given South Africa’s sophisticated economy, with a GDP placing it at 33rd in the world in 2018, and an increasingly service-driven economy (World Bank, 2019), there is a need for greater postsecondary education in the workforce. As the economy and state of education currently stand, there is a clear gap between the actual skills of middle- aged black South Africans and management positions prescribed to them via BBBEE. Since BEE incentivizes corporations to adhere to BBBEE standards by maintaining a black majority workforce, there has been a decrease in hiring opportunities for skilled white employees. The effects of this are twofold: not only are young white workers leaving the country to find opportunity abroad, but also many corporations are not able to source black employees with the necessary skills (Wessels, 2018). When considering the brain drain phenomenon and skills gap, there is an issue connecting education, opportunity, and financial growth. There is hope that this gap is a temporary issue that will be solved as an increasing number of black South Africans receive education and training. In the meantime, as BBBEE disrupts this cycle, it interferes with the growth and functioning of South Africa’s businesses. (For further discussion on education, see articles by Jin and Skinner in this volume.) Entrepreneurship and Empowerment An objective of BBBEE Act 46 is “to promote access to finance for black start-ups, small, medium and micro enterprises, co- operatives and black entrepreneurs, including those in the informal business sector” (RSA, 2014). This ideology is enforced by the Enterprise and Supplier Development element within the Codes of Good Practice. Enterprise and Supplier Development scoring is based on procurement spending for goods and services fromEmpowering Suppliers. The Codes of Good Practice outline specific requirements that must be met for a company to be classified as an Empowering Supplier. Start-ups and exempted microenterprises are excused from this rule and automatically granted Empowering Supplier status in order to facilitate entrepreneurship within the BBBEE environment (RSA, 2013). This guideline acknowledges the beneficial link between empowerment and entrepreneurship, but BBBEE policy can do even more to facilitate entrepreneurship. The Journal of Entrepreneurship Education is devoted to discussing the power of highereducationinpromotingentrepreneurship to mitigate issues of youth unemployment and racial inequity. Entrepreneurs are the key to discovering new opportunities for capital, employment, and transformation. Their innovation is capable of breaking cycles of stagnation and inequality (Ncanywa, 2019). BBBEE policy can connect companies with entrepreneurial-based programs in higher education. Such programs will provide young South Africans with access to the technical skills and the human capital needed to launch their entrepreneurial ideas. In addition, it may help stymie the increasing youth unemployment, especially among HDSAs. Gender Empowerment BBBEE Act 46 redefines BBBEE as “viable economic empowerment of all black people [including], in particular women, workers, youth…” (RSA, 2014). This specification of the legislation as well as the enactment of other gender-based empowerment policies symbolizes South Africa’s commitment to development for women. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2020, South Africa was ranked 17th of 153 countries, with a score of 0.78 out of 1 in terms of gender parity. This global index score consists of four subindexes: economic participation, educational attain- ment, health and survival, and political empow- erment. Although South Africa is performing comparatively well in health and survival and political empowerment, it is ranked 92 for economic participation and opportunity and 67 for educational attainment (World Economic Forum [WEF], 2020). Economic participation and opportunity include labor force participation, wage equality, estimated earned income, number of women holding senior positions, and the number of professional and technical women workers (WEF, 2020). This index strongly aligns with the DTI’s empowerment agendas and the ideology behind BBBEE’s aim to support women in the