Progressing the journey: innovation and design thinking in workshop 2

If you have been following our journey, you can read about part 1 of our social enterprise workshop series for high school learners in South Africa. On 2 July 2025, the 100 learners returned for the second part of their social enterprise learning journey.

Instead of focusing on the problem, the class shifted attention toward innovation and design thinking to generate a wide range of creative ideas.

Workshop 2 learning objectives

The second session focused on the core components of developing a social venture:

• Learning objective 1: Understanding the role of innovation in social change.
• Learning objective 2: Introducing the concept of design thinking to solve social problems.
• Learning objective 3: Learning how to prototype solutions using storyboarding.

Bringing innovation and systemic problems together

Workshop 2 centered on collaborative group work. Students examined the specific details of their chosen systemic problems and combined these elements to build a functional social innovation.

“Social innovation is the process of developing and deploying effective solutions to challenging and often systemic social and environmental issues in support of social progress.”

The groups worked through the complexities of their problem statements to make their ideas practical. This process required significant effort, and the students successfully presented their concepts to the class.

In workshop 3, we invite a social entreprise founder of ABCD Concepts, Buntu Matole into the room as a living inspirational case study of what the students have been studying. Watch out for part 3 of the series.