Minister urges businesses to join in project
2009-08-20
AT the launch of the Work and Skill for 100 000 Programme (W&S100KP) in Paarl last week, which will address the unemployment levels of young adults in the Western Cape, the Western Cape minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Alan Winde, urged businesses to join the project by providing top-up funding for the young adults who are part of this programme. The project aims to nurture the beneficiaries to ensure that they can enter the formal or informal business sector at the end of their year’s training. KWV also has taken on 40 students and will ensure that by the end of their calendar year of training, they will be employed within the tourism sector This initiative by the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism, the Cape Agency for Sustainable Integrated Development in Rural Areas (CASIDRA) and The Workforce Group, is to provide opportunities for young adults to gain skills through work experience. “In order to grow our economy, we need to attract international investment. After their year of internship, these young people, with their skills and dedicated work etic, will provide investors with the incentive to bring their business to our province. “The knock-on effects of this programme are huge for the individual and for his and her family,” he said. Approximately seventy percent of the Western Cape’s unemployed citizens are between the age of 15 and 35 with a large majority that have never worked before. Most have not been given the opportunity to gain the required experience to make them attractive candidates for employment. Some turn to drugs and crime out of desperation and the global recession has made finding employment even harder. The project aims to assist the recipients over a period of five years. The pilot phase, facilitated by CASIDRA and The Workforce Group, kicked off last month, when a test group of 450 people underwent a series of personal and skills development training sessions before being placed with various employers.
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