More than 40 local youths successfully complete their skills training programme
ALEXANDRA – The programme aims to empower unemployed youth in the area with business and workplace readiness skills.
In May this year, when Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) released its unemployment rate for the first quarter of 2019, the numbers revealed that unemployment rate among young people aged 15–24 years was 55.2 per cent.
In their quest to fight this scourge of unemployment in Alexandra, a non-profit organisation Afrika Tikkun that provides education, health and social services to young people and their families through centres of excellence in South African townships, embarked on a three-month youth training programme.
The programme was aimed at empowering unemployment youth in the area with business skills and workplace readiness skills to help them face the world.
A group of 40 unemployed youngsters between the age of 18 and 35 graduated in a hair and beauty training programme and a driver’s licence training programme.
Career development placement programme manager at Afrika Tikkun’s Phuthaditjaba Centre, Phindile Mchunu said the programme was aimed at helping unemployed youth with or without matric to acquire basic business skills.
“The hair and beauty training programme is designed to keep young people off the streets and provide them with relevant skills that they will use to open up their own businesses or get employment at the salons. The training programme runs for three months including four to five weeks of hair styling training, three to four weeks of beauty treatment training and a further one to two weeks work and industry readiness programme,” Mchunu said.
She said the reason they decided to offer driver’s licence training programme was because of an outcry from young people who could not get jobs because they did not have a driver’s licence.
Tumisang Leboa (24) who successfully completed her driver’s licence training programme and Agnes Manthatha (21) who graduated from the hair and beauty training programme said they were thankful to Afrika Tikkun for bringing some light into their lives.
“I am going to open my own hair and beauty salon. The training programme has equipped me with the necessary skills to start my own business. Besides the skills and training programme, Afrika Tikkun provided us with start-up work material,” said Manthatha.
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