October calls for the expansion of youth training programme

The director-general of the department of trade and industry (dti), Lionel October, has called for the adoption of the Monyetla Work Readiness Programme model to grow the economy and to create employment for youth.

October said the two sectors that should be targeted with this model in order to deal with the challenge of youth unemployment in South Africa are manufacturing and services sectors.

He was speaking at the first Monyetla Work Readiness Programme Recognition Awards that were hosted by the dti in Midrand, on Monday this week.

The spokesperson of the department, Sidwell Medupe, said the awards were held to recognise the successes achieved during the completion of the three phases of the programme.

Medupe said 7 000 youth from six provinces were successfully trained in the business processing and outsourcing sector.

“Monyetla should be used as a case study to be expanded to other industries. We need to consider rolling-out this model to other industries like the film, manufacturing industries etc,” said October.

According to October, to grow the South African economy there is a need to have a vision of where the country wants to go, create public private partnerships and build institutions to drive the industry.

“The success of the Monyetla Work Readiness Programme can be attributed to the strong partnerships between government, business and other organisations in the industry. These partnerships should be encouraged in order to realise the vision we have for the industry and growth of our economy,” added October.

Fifteen students from across the country, who participated in the programme and were successfully placed in employment, received certificates of recognition. The three top achievers were awarded cash prizes worth R10 000.

The best performing consortia (trainers and employers) who participated in the third phase of the programme were also honoured for their contribution in turning the lives of young people around.

The Monyetla Work Readiness Programme is an employer-led, government funded initiative designed to provide work ready entrants for the business processing services sector (BPS).

It seeks to address the skills gap between the unemployable and the unemployed population, especially the young, by recruiting and training unemployed youth and absorbing a minimum of 70 percent of those trained into formal employment in the BPS sector.

This programme has been running since 2008 and is funded by the department of higher education and training through the national skills fund and Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) through Jobs Fund.

The first phase which was a pilot started in 2008 – 2009 trained 1 000 learners. This was followed by the second phase in 2010-2011 with an addition of a new unit standard where a further 3 350 learners were trained.

The third phase of the Monyetla Work Readiness Programme commenced in June last year and ended in April this year.

During the third phase of the programme, 87 percent of the targeted 3 000 youth successfully completed the programme and 71 percent placed in employment.

Thirty seven percent of the learners were trained in Gauteng, 33 percent in Kwa-Zulu Natal, 21 percent in the Western Cape, four percent in the Eastern Cape, three percent in Limpopo and two percent in the Free State.