Young individuals spoke of the skills they have acquired from ORT SA in Houghton during lockdown. The young members of society are part of the ORT SA Youth Employment Service (Yes4Youth).
Ort CEO Ariellah Rosenberg said, “The Yes4Youth is a partnership between government and corporates, aiming at placing one million youth in jobs for quality work experiences. Placing youth for a 12-month work experience is more than just providing them with an income for one year.”
She added that the employed person was equipped with new knowledge, skills, disciplines and capabilities that no schooling would be able to provide. Rosenberg said youth placed in jobs for work experience gained not only knowledge and skills but also confidence and self-reliance that took them out of the vicious cycle of non-employability. One of the programme’s beneficiaries, Ricky Bapela who works at Sheer Bliss said he was glad to have recently started his one-year work experience thanks to the programme.
Fellow beneficiary Slindile Phungula who works at Rebone Primary School said, “The lockdown has brought out in me the skills of being more disciplined, focused and driven.”Vanessa Africa who is with Infantry Consulting said she had learnt to brush up on her computer skills.
For Thabo Putsoane, the focus has been more on computer science. “I have been learning more about how to encode and create stories. I fell in love with computer science when I was busy doing Google training at ORT SA,” he said.
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