Cape Town, South Africa - Ten high school pupils from the Meadowlands Secondary school have returned home to South Africa after attending the second annual Junior Achievement (JA) Africa Region Company of the Year (COY) Competition in Accra, Ghana. The pupils were all participants in the Junior Achievement South Africa (JASA) Entrepreneurship Academy Programme which was funded by Investec.

The seven-month programme aims to educate over 400 pupils from 11 under-resourced schools across six provinces on every aspect of running their own business.

They are taught entrepreneurial skills by essentially starting up and running their own mini companies.

The Meadowlands students had split themselves into two companies, namely Sisonke Enterprise and Young Achievers.

These mini companies had been selected from over approximately 150 other mini companies, launched during JASA programmes in 2011, to represent South Africa in the JA Africa Region COY competition, with their innovative products.

The South African teams joined 20 other student companies from 14 sub-Saharan countries -  Botswana, Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Kenya, Mauritius, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.

'Our trip to Ghana was awesome! There were so many life changing moments. We learnt so much, met so many new people and had a great time,' said participant Omphile Rakate.

Pana 10/11/2011