North West Business 2019 edition

FOCUS
Training programmes tackle
unemployment
Social Development MEC calls for action from young people.
Graduates happily show their certificates in building and civil construction, a training
programme for unemployed youth run by the North West Department for Social
Development.
Young people should form co-operatives and look for
sponsorship from government departments and businesses
if they are to lift themselves out of the cycle of poverty, North
West MEC for Social Development, Hoffman Galeng, told
young people at Wonderkop near Marikana at the end of a training
programme.
“Go to your respective communities with the skills that you have
acquired during your 10-month training and make a difference. Register
co-operatives and look for sponsorship from businesses in your area
and various government departments including ours. Sit together,
make plans to advance your goals,” Galeng said to the applause of
50 unemployed youth who received training in building and civil
construction.
Since 2011, Galeng said his department has provided accredited
training to 1 200 unemployed youth who were recruited from deprived
wards across the province.
“We are equipping these young people so that they become
future employers and be the change agents in the communities that
they come from,” Galeng said, adding that the skills that the learners
have acquired will increase their
employability and encourage them
to venture into the labour market.
One of the learners, Samuel
Sedu, 23, said he learnt a lot during
a 10-month training course which
was coupled with practical exercise.
During the training, Monamodi said,
R1 780 was paid as a stipend to cover
their daily expenses and household
necessities. “We are so grateful to
government for presenting this
opportunity to us. We know how
to build houses. We wish that
government should not neglect
us. We really need after-care so that
we do not roam around the streets
with the skills that we have acquired,”
Rampuru said.
NORTH WEST BUSINESS 2019
16