ABOUT 160,000 aspirant entrepreneurs have heeded a call by the government to come forward with business ideas to help create jobs.

Gauteng MEC for economic development Qedani Mahlangu marvelled at the overwhelming response to the quaintlycoined Y-Age programme for Youth and Graduate Entrepreneurship Development.

Y-Age is a programme which is a public-private partnership that seeks to stimulate a sustainable entrepreneurial culture in South Africa.

"From the applicants, we have deduced that most of the aspirant entrepreneurs are interested in the financial services, manufacturing, arts and culture, construction, information communication technology or computers and retail," Mahlangu said.

"The numbers are exciting. I want to applaud young people who heeded our call and had faith in what we announced."

Onkgopotse JJ Tabane, chief executive of Oresego Holdings, Y-Age's founding and implementation partners, said yesterday that out of the 20,000 manually-filed applications, 6,000 people had been selected and that he hoped the programme would help achieve the government's goal of creating five million jobs by 2020.

"About 1,000 people are in class in nine venues across the province as we speak," Tabane said, adding that they wished to target 100,000 people aged between the 18 and 34.

"But people aged between 35 to 40, who have tertiary qualifications, will also be considered for the programme," Tabane said.

The department has set aside R90-million (over three years) to kick-start the initiative. Other developmental finance institutions and private sector partners have also been brought on board.

People will be trained in various business skills and if their plans meet the required funding criteria, they will receive funding of between R500,000 and R1-million. There are about 3.6-million unemployed youths in Gauteng. Youths to be trained will include:

- People with existing businesses but no funding;

- People with business ideas but no funding;

- People with innovative ideas that need funding; and

- People who had businesses that failed due to lack of funding.

Budding entrepreneurs are due to register on an on-line website and mobisite and pay a R500 commitment fee once they have been selected.

Y-Age's other partners include the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller, the department of economic development, Karan Beef, youth leadership development organisations Sacord and Hope Africa, entrepreneurship development organisation Oresego. Others are several sector education authorities and further education and training colleges.