72 000 of SA`s unemployed to be in learnerships by next year

"Some 72 000 unemployed youth must be in learnerships by May 2004." These are the words of Charles Mooke, Deputy Director of Learnerships and Skills Development for the Department of Labour, at a breakfast hosted by The People Business in Lonehill last week.

"SA as a country has many challenges with regards to education and unemployment, and one of the biggest is the number of unemployed youth. Many of these youths have the ability to learn and develop but the money and opportunities are not available. Learnerships are a means to help these unemployed youth by creating an opportunity for them to learn," says Mooke.

However, the most difficult thing about learnerships is that one needs employers who are willing to dedicate the time and effort to these projects. "A learnership is not just another training programme," continues Mooke, "but a process of learning and developing both hands-on and theoretical areas, that leads to a recognised qualification. There are set standards for measurement that require employers to regularly assess the learners on their progress and report back to the relevant parties. This requires some time commitment."

Two prominent companies within the IT industry have embraced these challenges head on in an attempt to promote the development of IT skills in the market. This has been done in the form of an "Academy", which is fast becoming one of the most popular ways to support the Department of Labour`s initiatives and skills development within the current South African economy.

Sonja Balt, Academy Manager at Oracle SA, says: "Oracle started the Academy 5 years ago to show their commitment to making a difference in the IT environment and to the South African economy in general. Our objective is to address the shortage of skills within IT and increase the local pool of Oracle skills as well as be a leader in the upliftment and education of SA`s PDIs.

"The first challenge is finding the right students. We advertised in a national paper for the first Academy and received over 800 applications. This gave us a very good idea of the need in the market for developing PDIs. We have not had to advertise again since this first advert - it has been word of mouth and we still on average receive up to 400 applications a year!" Balt explains.

The students then go through a very strict selection process where Oracle SA narrows it down to about 15 successful students, who then embark on the Academy.

Compuware Corporation SA has also recently started an Academy, with many of the same underlying principles. "Compuware SA launched the STEP (Software Testing Empowerment Programme) as part of the company`s black economic empowerment strategy and to reiterate our commitment to being actively involved in the transformation process. Academies were identified as the most effective way to inject the ISETT Skills Development Levy refunds back into the industry and promote ongoing skills development," explains Melindie Coetzee, HR Operations Manager at Compuware.

"Compuware decided to outsource the selection of the students to The People Business - People Development (member of The People Business Group of Companies), because of their expertise in running PDI Academies. The selection process is vital to the success of the programme in the industry and the true value-add to the future careers of the trainees involved. Even though Compuware has been involved in many other PDI and general skills development programmes in the past, the Compuware STEP Academy is an exciting and extremely rewarding new initiative because it is entirely supported and facilitated by the company and the Compuware employees," she continues.

The structure of the Academy is similar for both companies. The students begin with technical training in an area of specialisation. Oracle has a number of areas from which the students can choose - from database to sales. Compuware identified a gap in the software testing arena within IT, and therefore decided to focus the technical Compuware product training specifically on the development of software testing skills. "In the future," says Coetzee, "the Compuware technical product training might be focused on other technical areas that are identified as `skills gaps` in the market and are key to supporting the company and the IT industry as a whole."

Mooke believes that for learnerships and academies to be successful, the youth of today need to learn about business in general and gain an understanding of the employment market. It is a matter of changing their mindsets to understand the work environment and how best to behave in it.

Both Balt and Coetzee agree. "This is why we have outsourced the Life Skills training to The People Business - People Development. They have been running their 10-day Business Orientation Skills programme to round off the Academy training for a number of years and the results have been astounding. We only get positive feedback from students and employers and it has been proven that the students are productive in the first six to eight weeks of employment. The 10-day programme teaches the students a number of business and life skills, from budgeting and finance, presentation skills, business etiquette, interviewing skills to name but a few," says Balt.

All in all the combination of the technical training, on-the-job practical training and the business orientation skills provides these PDI students with a smoother and more productive entry in to the world of work and makes learnerships of this kind a success story. These Academies go a long way in helping the Department of Labour achieve its goal of getting 72 000 of SA`s unemployed into learnerships by next year.