This paper examines the dominant approach to entrepreneurship education in the South African education system regarding the crisis of youth unemployment. It draws on the case of the public-school sector, in conjunction with the technical vocational education and training (TVET) subsector of the post-school education sector. The comparison of the entrepreneurship education sector plan for public schools with the discourse on TVET reform shows that entrepreneurship education similarly follows the 'skills perspective' with a dominant focus on the formal economy, which is informed by a human-capital based and productivist approach to education. The authors argue that this understanding of entrepreneurship education employs a too narrow perspective on youth unemployment as it overlooks individual capabilities and agency and can contribute to an experience of youth unemployment as individual failure. The authors expand this argument by suggesting a critical entrepreneurship education approach, which is outlined based on two programmes at primary-school and post-school education (TVET) level in a poor urban area. The authors argue that a critical entrepreneurship education approach contributes to learning for capabilities, social justice and democratic citizenship.