Johannesburg, 06 Dec 2018
Technical and vocational skills are an important commodity in a skills-scarce environment like South Africa. These skills will be more coveted due to increased automation and work being designed around technology.
Moreover, access to university education is challenging, and practical, focused skills training is a viable way to secure employment and increase household income. An article in Skills Portal adds that by making training and skills development programmes such as learnerships, artisan courses, short courses and workplace training available, it assists with breaking the cycle of poverty.
"Kyocera Document Solutions South Africa (KDZA) is part of this job evolution, with our hi-tech automation solutions. But no matter the level of automation and technological change, we'll always need human technicians to fix and maintain our machines," says Werner Engelbrecht, Kyocera Document Solutions South Africa's General Manager.
It's for these reasons that Kyocera partnered with vocational non-profit training provider Potters House Training Centre in Soweto 12 years ago and it is also why we've focused our CSI responsibilities on upskilling disadvantaged people in concrete and vocational ways. In particular, KDZA supports the xerography training programme through the provision of equipment and consumables required for the training programme. This programme effectively equips students to repair office automation equipment and, on completion, students are able to enter the IT/office automation industry job market.
KDZA recently hosted its 12th Potters House Graduation ceremony, honouring 29 students. The top achiever award went to Bafana Solly Mathebula, and KDZA Software Product Manager Jean-Pierre Lourens was the guest speaker, who spoke inspirationally about the future being what one makes of it. The graduates then toured the KDZA building and networked with the Kyocera team.
Said Solly Mathebula: "I learnt so much about the copier industry, and gained invaluable 'soft skills', like time management and paying and attention to detail."
Said Engelbrecht: "KDZA's corporate social responsibility investment is a strategic one, tackling the facets of skills shortages in our industry, which in turn tackles community poverty. We hope to celebrate with our graduates for many years to come."
Since the programme's inception, around 240 young people from disadvantaged backgrounds have been through the training programme.