Gauteng MEC for Finance Mandla Komfe together with Westonaria Executive Mayor Nonkoliso Tundzi and other relevant departments hosted a career expo at the Westonaria Banquet Hall on 27 June.
This was to provide a platform to empower the youth in Westonaria and inform them about available skills training opportunities within the government and private sectors.
According to Nkomfe, this is a challenge that needs to be dealt with immediately as it hampers the youth’s progress and the economy.
“Today the doors of learning are open and there are equal rights as well as access to education.
“The youth of today must seize the moment and work hard to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge in order to take advantage of the available opportunities in the public and private sector.
“We find that there are various opportunities available for our youth but what good is that when they do not know about them?
“We have decided to showcase opportunities provided by provincial government and other stakeholders.
“We publicize opportunities such as bursaries, internships, learnerships, business knowledge and employment,” says Komfe.
He adds that in the previous year, the government provided almost 8000 internships and learnership opportunities to the unemployed youth.
“The provincial government has established an unemployment database which consists of skilled and semi-skilled youth who are between 18 and 35 years old.
“Should there be employment opportunities, the government utilizes this database to recruit interns and learnership candidates.
“I urge every youth to register on the database so that they could also be considered for available employment opportunities in the public sector,” says Nkomfe.
At the expo, latest Idols winner Khaya Mthethwa also took to the stage and encouraged young people to become active citizens and empower themselves with knowledge.
