Ward 104 councillor Mike Wood has continued his drive to showcase businesses doing exceptional things during the Covid-19 crisis in his ward.
Wood invited the Randburg Sun to visit Microtronix Manufacturing, an electronics manufacturer situated on Fabriek Street, Strijdom Park.
“Shaun approached me to ask if I could put the word out to the community about an internship drive at his company, and the feedback was immense. I believe that this is a fantastic initiative that more companies in our area can follow,” said Wood. The interns went through comprehensive training, before being placed on the electronics manufacturing assembly line to hone their newly learned skills for on-the-job training.
“Out of the 380 staff working for us, only 20 had prior experience in the field. The rest were all recent school leavers, struggling to find a career path and were from previously disadvantaged backgrounds. Mike was very helpful in sending a few interns our way, and we also engaged with a local community church in Cosmo City,” said Shaun Rampursad.
Around 250 people applied for the internships, and 38 people were recently given positions at the factory. He said that another unwritten policy of the company was to not employ staff working from similar companies and that the empowerment of unskilled and unemployed workers was a priority. “Many employees who have left us have saved enough money working with us to study towards a full career in this field,” said Rampursad.
Microtronix manufactures and assembles electronics for familiar services including television and electricity providers. “More companies need to look at local manufacturing. Factories like ours have state-of-the-art equipment, professionally trained staff, and a manufacturing level of international quality. But most importantly, utilising the skills of local factories helps to promote job creation and empowerment in our county and this is the way our county will move forward.
“There are 11.1 million unemployed people in South Africa, and the Covid-19 crisis has only made this issue worse. Skills need to be trained and developed as a priority,” concluded Rampursad.
