#YouthMonth: Working on Fire is moving SA forward
How Working on Fire contributes to moving South Africa forward by providing job opportunities, skills development and personal development for South Africa's youth.
Now in its 16th year of existence, Working on Fire’s (WOF) Expanded Public Works Programme has successfully provided work opportunities, skills training and personal development to the youth.
WOF is a government-funded, job-creation programme focusing on implementing integrated fire management in South Africa.
WOF was established in 2003 with 850 firefighters and it has grown to a staff complement of around 5 000 young South Africans, with 30 per cent of them women. This is among the highest levels of gender representation of any comparable fire service in the world.
Stephen Boyes, General Manager for the Working on Fire programme in Gauteng said these firefighters are recruited from marginalised communities and trained in fire awareness, education, fire prevention and fire suppression skills.
WOF has contributed significantly towards creating job opportunities for young men and women. Today, more than 85 per cent of the beneficiaries employed in WOF are from the age group 18 to 35. Furthermore, WOF has also provided job opportunities for more than 15 000 young men and women during the past 16 years.
“Indeed, the WOF Programme has become well known for its contribution towards restoring dignity in the lives of our firefighters, saving lives and protecting the environment. To many, the WOF programme is not only a step out of poverty, it also provides a better life to their children and generations to come.
“It should also be acknowledged that there have been important opportunities for participants to secure management positions in the programme. To date, close to 200 of the current salaried Working on Fire management staff are former firefighters.
“In addition, a large portion of former firefighters have also passed through Working on Fire, moving on to careers in the security industry, road traffic management, police and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), while others have become environmental monitors and field rangers at our national parks.”
Visit their website https://workingonfire.org/ for more information.
