City learnership gives unemployed graduates a head-start
29 November 2017
After graduating with a Higher Certificate in Marketing from Boston College in 2012, Khanyisa Tsotso stayed at home in Dobsonville, Soweto.
Her job prospects looked bleak. But in November 2015, things started looking up for her after she had enrolled for a learnership run by the City of Johannesburg’s Emergency Management Services (EMS) together with the Services Seta Board and TM Consulting.
Tsotso, along with 374 other learners, started the one-year learnership with a three months theory component.
“I didn’t have work experience. The theory taught me how to handle myself professionally and how to present myself. It boosted my self-confidence,” she recalls.
Most of the learners were placed within the Public Safety Department for workplace experience, receiving a stipend of R1 500 a month.
Tsotso was then taken on board as a Human Resource Assistant at the Florida Fire Station until the learnership ended at the end of 2016. With her confidence developing, Tsotso worked as a volunteer until August 2017, when she came out tops among candidates who were interviewed for the position of Administration Assistant at the Ivory Park Fire Station.
“It was an amazing feeling when we graduated recently. Many of the people I did the learnership with are now employed, although some of them are not in permanent positions yet,” she says.
Lindiwe Nkosi, CEO of TM Consulting, expressed joy at seeing so many young people complete their learnerships. “It warms my heart to see young people securing jobs within the City and private sector as a result of these learnerships.”
About 40% of the youth who completed the learnership have found employment in various departments and entities of the City like JMPD, Social Development and City Parks especially where there have been staff shortages.
Themba Mhambi, Chairperson of the Services Seta Board, welcomed the graduates to the world of work. “You are the ones to get things done. You are the future leaders in business, politics, medicine and other spheres of life. You are the reason why different role players have come together to provide training and employment opportunities and this is something to celebrate.”
Learnerships are work based and enable successful, competent learners the opportunity to progress in a job. Each learner is required to enter into a standard contract, obtainable through a SETA which regulates the learnership process.
A learnership is a structured learning programme that has been formally registered with the Department of Labour and contains both practical (70%) and theoretical (30%) components. Learnerships are of a specified nature, level and duration (usually one year) resulting in a nationally recognised qualification. Currently, the Department of Public Safety has placed 200 graduates on learnerships.