“We have established the centre to give hope to the hopeless and cater for the needs of its constituent community,” said Lucinda Gill.
Lucinda is the co-ordinator at the Callan Tyler Empowerment Centre in Florida, which recently opened its doors to welcome its first students. Lucinda said, “We have signed a contract with the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Academy (MeRSETA) and ArcSkills, who will help us to provide training to the community”.
The first candidates were inducted and interviewed by the Divisional Manager from ArcSkills, Andrew Zondi, the founder of Callan Tyler Empowerment Centre, Sandy Edwards as well as Lucinda, and the would-be students were very excited about the prospects.
“The training that will be provided will be done according to MeRSETA standards and students will have the opportunity to be partnered with an experienced welder to be mentored. They will also be exposed to the workplace for a maximum of one month, in order to gain workplace experience and to be able to apply the knowledge gained during training. The training programmes will be for three months and will take place in Meadowdale, Germiston,” said Lucinda.
She added that the aim with this partnership is to equip the underprivileged youth with skills that will make them attractive in the workplace. “The communities we serve are underprivileged and most of the parents are unemployed with only one – and in some cases no – breadwinner per home. These areas are populated by low-income individuals, generally with low education and low levels of employment – factors that lead to a malfunctioning community populated by people with low self- esteem and poor self-worth. With the provided training, they will gain life skills as well which will enable most of them to provide for their families,” she said.
The centre is dependent on donations, and is appealing to companies to partner with them. Lucinda explained as follows:
“If companies would be willing to open their doors for the youth once they have successfully completed their certified, accredited training, we will be able to fight poverty and crime together.”
For more information, contact Lucinda on 083 313 4622.
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