Duxbury Networking has confirmed that its co-ordinated corporate social investment (CSI) programme, using its staffing and skills resources to target previously disadvantaged individuals within the education environment, has been well established for over a year.
According to MD, Graham Duxbury, the company adopted a broad-based empowerment approach to its upliftment programme, the key objective of which was to bring computer literacy training to administrative staff in selected schools in the Soweto area.
At the heart of Duxbury`s upliftment programme is a seven-week skills advancement course, held at the Duxbury Academy in Johannesburg, for the clerical, administration, secretarial and reception staff of these schools. Already five such courses have been held.
The course focuses on the use of computers and popular software programs, including MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and others, in the day-to-day execution of common tasks.
"We execute a skills transfer programme to help students, many of whom have not been exposed to business protocols, to write business letters, draft invitations and use computers to perform basic administrative tasks," says Duxbury.
The second element of the CSI programme makes use of the skills resources of Duxbury Networking - as well as the computer equipment at the schools - to design and establish databases to hold information concerning the schools, their pupils and their administration.
Already the following schools in Soweto have been so equipped: Entandweni, Lakeview, Sibowgile, Dumezweni, Ekuthuleni, Jabavu and Isipho Primary.
"We believe our efforts will have a `ripple effect` in the community as these staff members will be more powerfully equipped to offer a better service to the student body," he adds.
The classes are instructor-led, group paced and consist of the following content:
Module 1: Directory structures
Module 2: Creating templates in Microsoft
Module 3: Introduction to Excel
Module 4: Introduction to PowerPoint
Module 5: Introduction to Word
Module 6: Introduction to Access
Module 7: Duxbury student database
Module 8: Revision/practical assessment
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