IMPACT WEEK SOUTH AFRICA 2025
Cape Town is more than its breathtaking landscapes. Apply to become a Junior Coach at Impact Week South Africa, see Cape Town in a different light and work with local innovators to tackle challenges that matter.
After a virtual Impact Week and a first in-person event in 2024 in partnership with TSIBA Business School, we are returning to South Africa! This year, we continue the partnership to train more people in Design Thinking and give more students from TSIBA the chance to participate in our engaging, interactive 4-day Design Thinking Challenge. We will empower over 36 local and international Junior Coaches and 100 young participants with Design Thinking skills that they can use to solve social challenges in the Cape Town community.
Cape Town, one of the largest cities in South Africa and home to over 3.7 million inhabitants with a youthful majority population, faces a lot of social challenges, including climate change, unemployment, education inaccessibility, substance abuse, health challenges, inequalities, and crime, among many more problems common in African urban areas. The good news is that these challenges provide a big opportunity for impact creation by empowering youths to solve them. Impact Week’s mission in Cape Town will be to ensure that we support the youths to apply the Design Thinking framework to deliver human-centered and community-centric solutions to challenges in their communities.
Key facts
Dates
Train-the-Coach: September 3 – 5
IW Challenge: September 8 – 11
Location
Local Partner
TSIBA
Wanna Join?
Join us to make your Impact!
What to expect
With our two-module approach, we will train a new cohort of Junior Coaches by guiding them through a 3-day “Train-the-Coach” phase.
The international and local participants will then take their new role as Design Thinking Coaches and work together with students from TSIBA Business School and other communities in Cape Town to find innovative solutions for local challenges. This defines the “practical phase” and will give the new Coaches the unique opportunity to directly implement what they have just learned while being guided by experienced Senior Coaches along the journey.
The innovative and customer-focused orientation of the Design Thinking methodology helps all participants to challenge their way of tackling a problem. The unique spirit of the Impact Week experience will definitely inspire you to look at entrepreneurship and social innovation in a completely different light.
What are the benefits of joining an Impact Week?
- Upon completion of the program, you will be a trained Junior Design Thinking Coach, having already applied the methodology.
- You’ll gain key skills through Design Thinking, such as innovation, customer focus, and implementation orientation.
- The intercultural experience at Impact Week will also help you gain different perspectives on problem solving as well as build your international network, which will be key to boosting your resourcefulness at work as well as creating avenues for future collaborations.
- In addition, Impact Week promotes local entrepreneurship and social innovation. We enable our local partners to apply Design Thinking themselves and run their own Impact Weeks.
Who are our local partners?
We work very closely with the local TSIBA Business School. TSIBA is a Social Enterprise comprising a Business School, Ignition Academy and Education Trust working together to return highly sought-after people and successful small business enterprises. They seek ambitious, purpose-driven people and emerging businesses who want to take South Africa forward.
TSIBA’s vision is to challenge the status quo of business education through a values-based approach to teaching and learning in a changing world, and their mission is to invest in purpose-driven humans and emerging businesses that lead social change. This perfectly aligns with Impact Week’s mission to foster innovation and entrepreneurship as well as intercultural and intercompany exchange through Design Thinking. This collaboration is a perfect mix to ensure youths in Cape Town gain Design Thinking skills, the right mentorship, and growth opportunities post-program. We are truly grateful for the collaboration and look forward to creating impact together!
What are the focus areas for challenges?
Each participating team will work on one focus area. The students can choose their focus area in the application process and get matched accordingly. Then it is up to them to own the challenge and create an innovative idea to tackle it – always keeping the Design Thinking methodology at heart.
Our tracks and the coaching experts will be published soon.
Timeline
|
7 May |
Registration opens for participation |
|
27 July |
Registration closes |
| 31 July, 3 pm CEST |
Virtual kick-off meeting for all participants |
| 1 September | Travel to South Africa |
| 3-5 September | Train-the-Coach: Our Junior Coaches get a professional Design Thinking training |
| 8-11 September | Impact Week South Africa – 4 days Design Thinking Challenge |
| 11 September | Pitch day and closing ceremony of Impact South Africa 2025 |
Participation
FEE
3500€ training fee + 1000€ local costs
We are open to discussing special pricing if you represent a smaller or local company or if you are only interested in participating in the Train-the-Coach phase.
Due to the longstanding relationship with the Lufthansa Group for almost 9 years, participants from any Lufthansa Group company can participate at a reduced fee of 3.175 €.
What’s
included
-
Double-room accommodation
-
Airport transfers
-
Meals
Not
Included
-
International flights to/from the local Airport
-
Visa and vaccination fees
-
Recreational activities
Our Team for Cape Town
Bianca Hartmann
Organizer
John Anton Durr
Organizer
Clayton Jardine
Organizer
Alex Grots
Lead Coach
Andrea Quintero
Communications
Our Partners
What our former participants say
“This experience was not only impactful but also deeply inspiring and incredibly fun. I am truly thankful for this opportunity and will always cherish the networks and friendships we created along the way.”