Seta empowers hundreds of Free State youth

The South African Safety and Security Education and Training Authority (Sasseta) has provided 250 young people in the Free State with bursaries, learnership and internship opportunities.

Seven of them will be trained in artisan skills. There are 19 skill education training authorities in South Africa and the Safety and Security SETA is one of them. This learnership project was initiated by the department of social development in the Free State during Sasseta’s annual general meeting in Bloemfontein in September 2012.

Sasseta’s CEO, Ntombekhaya Qamata, said the Seta seeks to synergise educational curricula and programmes with the requirements of the job market.

“SASSETA’s mandate calls for a fundamental shift in the planning process of the SETA to align them with the government’s need to increase the skill development opportunities for youth. Our plan is ensure that there is growth and capacity in FET colleges and universities to enable the rendering of relevant programmes, and to improve the employability of our youth,” said Qamata.

Sasseta will be spending R50 000 on each of the 61 students who will be receiving bursaries. Thirty five of the total 250 beneficiaries will be helped to start their cooperatives, and seven will be trained as artisans while 15 are going to be placed in different learnership programmes.

These young people were selected from the five districts in the province. They submitted their curriculum vitae (CVs) at the department of social development. The MEC for social development, Sisi Ntombela, personally submitted the CV’s to Sasseta offices.

“This is an opportunity of a lifetime, grab it with both hands and use it to change your lives. You must never let anyone decide your future for you and do not let anything prevent you from achieving your dreams.

“Yes, you might come from a poor background but that must not be your future. Go out there and achieve your dream, there are opportunities available,” said Ntombela in an address to the beneficiaries.

Sasseta provides learnership in the safety and security sector and provides deserving young people with bursaries to further their studies in institutions of their choice.

It includes private and public enterprises that are grouped into seven sub-sectors; policing, corrections, justice, defence, intelligence, legal services and private security and investigation.

Free State premier, Ace Magashule, shared his personal experience of being raised by a single mother to motivate the beneficiaries.

“I was raised by a single mother and all I could do was to try and imagine what my father was like. I worked as garden boy earning R250 per work and it helped with my education. Many South Africans’ mothers were kitchen girls and their fathers were garden boys.”

“But that did not stop many of us from achieving our dreams, as education was our priority. This government has a president (Jacob Zuma) who prioritises education, something that has never happened in our history. We were not allowed to study maths and science, the reason why today we have shortage of skilled people in sector such as engineering and other scarce skills,” said Magashule .

The chairperson of the Sasseta’s board of governors, Abby Witbooi, said the institution wants to help young people across the country and not focus only on major cities.

According to Witbooi, this is part of the Sasseta’s objective of taking Sasseta to the people.

“The National Skill Development Strategy III (NSDS) has brought a revolution in the skills development of our country, both philosophically and structurally, and Sasseta will strive to achieve these goals on a national basis,” said Witbooi.