AUTHOR: Unspecified
PUBLICATION: African Petrochemicals and energy
IMAGE: Original article
The initiative in partnership with South32 trains, recruits, trains and employs young people in solar panel installation, coding and robotics.
SolarSizwe is a pilot project by niche economic transformation consultants Traverse Advisory in partnership with South32 with the aim of upskilling youth in the Richard’s Bay area in Solar Panel Installations, Coding and Robotics.
Traverse Advisory CEO Nathi Khumalo says they are focused on delivering innovative and sustainable solutions to their clients skills development needs.
“We saw the pilot project recruit, train and employ 6 unemployed young people from the Richard’s Bay area who were registered with the YES programme in order to qualify for their work experience and they’ve so far received both theoretical and practical training – this has shown us that scalability on such a project is possible.” Khumalo says.
Jabu Mbatha, consultant at Traverse Advisory recruited and worked with the youth during the programme and adds that it allows the youth to become employable in the future.
“The young people part of the project are not only doing a 12 month programme but are getting upskilled to become more employable in the future no matter what trajectory their careers take,” Mbatha explained.
Khumalo says providing a solutions driven future that encompasses skills of the future is important in the current South African economy that is facing a power crisis and stagnating growth.
“Looking at the status our country is in now with regards to electricity, we need to make sure that if we do not equip ourselves with the knowledge of Solar as a substitute then we might as well equipyoung graduates who are still fresh from school, have the drive and the creativity to solve this life changing problem we have as a country."
Khumalo adds that offering unique turn-key solutions for client’s skills development element is important and that they believe that critical and core skills transfers are the only solution to the skillsgap that we have within the youth in South Africa.
“So, we make sure that our clients engage themselves in skills training that not only assist the candidate but also the client, in terms of ROI, and the industry and sector as a whole.”