Academic Partnerships

January 2009

Press Release

Internationally acclaimed initiative wins second global award

Described as a “world first” for the industry, and “an exciting project that has ramifications for other under-developed nations, and even other industries”, the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations (WFDSA) said South Africa has the potential to take a leadership role not only in Africa but globally, and that “no one else is doing anything like this”. This referred to the DSA Africa Development Plan, initially developed and implemented by the Direct Selling Association (DSA) and the University of Johannesburg (UJ), and then successfully adopted by the Durban University of Technology (DUT) at the beginning of 2007.

In recognition of the programmes success, the DSA of South Africa was called to stage at the WFDSA thirteenth triennial World Congress in Singapore during a gala dinner attended by over 500 international delegates from over 50 countries, and was presented with the highest accolade of the evening: the WFDSA International “Innovation Through Programming" Award for its outstanding academic programme that has achieved excellent results in its implementation and growth, and recognised as a globally successful initiative that can be used internationally as a template for other academic projects. Paddy McDonald, DSA Vice Chairman, received the Award. 

The Innovation Through Programming contest is open to all Direct Selling Associations around the world, totaling 58 national Direct Selling Associations and one regional federation – Federation of European Direct Selling Associations, as members of the WFDSA.

“This is the second time that an international award that has been won by the DSA-UJ Africa Development Plan, the first being at the WFDSA World Congress in London in 2005,” explained Richard Clarke, DSA Chairman.

The academic initiative was launched in 2002 when the DSA and UJ signed an agreement to equip students with practical sales skills. Since then, the project has also been successfully implemented at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), adopting a carbon copy of the DSA-UJ system, with only minor changes to suit the KZN environment.

“The project had been running for four successful years at UJ where we were able to iron out all the initial problems to ensure a smooth-running programme that could be duplicated elsewhere,” said Caroline Tointon, DSA Public Relations and Special Projects. “In 2007 we launched at DUT and we have made some minor adjustments to the programmes to ensure it suits the individual universities, but the overall template is the same. This year will see us focusing on additional universities to potentially launch in 2010.”

“It has been a very rewarding experience to work with colleagues at DUT in the planning and implementation of this project,” said Marius Wait, UJ Academic Head and National Project Leader. “Having experienced the project on a personnel level through the strategic development and implementation at UJ, it was far easier to roll-out the project with all its systems and processes in place.”

The essence of the programme;

The DSA is the watchdog of the Direct Selling industry and steers the project from an industry perspective. The Association invites its member companies to participate in a practical selling component for students doing Personal Selling and Sales Management. During an expo early in the year, students sign up with two non-competing companies to work with during the following 8 months. Part of the agreement is that these companies have to be on campus once a week; this is scheduled during the student’s normal timetable. This period is used for product training and business days where students place and receive orders. Students must reach a specific sales target in order to pass the relevant subject module. Companies participating in 2008 were Annique, Avon Justine, Avroy Shlain Cosmetics, Genovese, Table Charm and Tupperware SA.

Said Wait, “This project is a component of the National Diploma programmes which are designed to be more practical and specialist orientated than degree courses; the project is also in line with government’s policy of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) – where text book knowledge is tested in the real life environment. Passing a subject, and being able to reach a distinction, without writing an exam, also excites the students. This project provides the students with a unique opportunity to earn marks as they sell, and earn monetary rebates on the product sales. This collaboration between industry and the UJ is our students’ Unique Selling Proposition.”

“Nowhere else in Africa or the world is such a programme offered,” said Clarke. “Together with UJ we are setting a trend, a trend that has been successfully adopted by our colleagues at DUT. We have great support from the WFDSA, who sees this as true innovation and a template for other interested countries.”

“Direct selling is a huge industry around the world, the growth of which is outstripping economic growth in most countries, and has yet to reach its full potential in South Africa,” explained Clarke. “The opportunities are therefore enormous,” he said. One of the major challenges, however, was to persuade young people to give it a try, and this was one of the motivators for the DSA involvement in the programme: "The DSA wants to create awareness of direct selling as a viable career for a new generation of South Africans, many of whom may not immediately find work in the formal sector due to the current environment of high unemployment."

“Of 900,000 young people who enter the job market each year, scarcely 10% find employment in the formal sector,” said Clarke.

Clarke believes students should not view the programme as simply an “interim” source of income, or simply a way to pass a module, but rather the possibility of a full-time business opportunity in which they could offer employment to others: “Our member companies provide the full spectrum of practical sales and management training free-of-charge, and a potential opportunity for earning passive income by building up a team of sales people that is second to none,” he said.

The project now enrols approximately 1500 students per annum, which last year saw a product sales turnover of over R 4-million, which translates to about R 1-million back to students in the form of commission.

The vision for the DSA-UJ Africa Development Plan is to implement at tertiary education institutions throughout the country and into Africa over the next 10-years.