Education & Youth | Bertha Centre

Our Education and Youth portfolio supports young people to transition into further opportunities in education, employment and entrepreneurship to contribute to a more connected and responsive youth development ecosystem. Our focus is on giving youth access to the systems and opportunities that are indispensable for their development as changemakers.

Goals:

Design and deliver programmes that build skills, confidence and direction
Strengthen how organisations that work with young people engage and respond to them
Improve coordination with organisations, partners and stakeholders to strengthen pathways to opportunity
Use our understanding of success to inform better approaches across the sector

Mental Health Project

Mental health is not separate from education, employment or entrepreneurship. It shapes whether young people are able to access and sustain these opportunities.

Ecosystem Support

South Africa has thousands of organisations working to support young people, running programmes, creating opportunities, building skills, providing psychosocial support. Most of this work is real and valuable. But much of it happens in par

Capacity Building

Youth development organisations are working in increasingly complex environments. Strengthening outcomes for young people requires organisations to continually learn, adapt their programmes and work more effectively with others.

Ecosystem Mapping

As part of our efforts to better support the youth development ecosystem The Bertha Centre team have been involved in number of system focused initiatives. These include the Ecosystem Mapping report.

Changemaker Programme

Changemaker programme is a two-month interactive social entrepreneurship programme for young people, not in formal education, training, or employment, offered by the University of Cape Town's Bertha Centre.

Youth Innovation Essay Prize

The Youth Innovation Essay Prize (also known as the Youth Innovation Prize or YIP) is an annual competition inviting young people aged 18–30 across South Africa to submit innovative ideas addressing a specific social challenge

Pathways to Information

The Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship in partnership with Huruma Bantfu, a youth run strategic consultancy company, host a one day event titled Pathways to Information.

Classrooms for Change

The Classrooms for Change Online Professional Development Course was for teachers who wanted support in helping the adolescents in their classrooms to think critically about history, understand the impact of their choices today.

Investec Leadership Conference

Bertha Centre partnered with Investec ahead of their Leadership Conference, which took place in February 2023, in producing pre-learning material (podcasts, videos, learning briefs, and webinars) for their 400 leaders.