AUTHOR: Jordan Erradu
PUBLICATION: Public Eye
Schools in the Northdale and surrounding areas will benefit from the employment of 200 educator assistants (EAs) through the Youth Employment Service (YES) programme.
The launch took place on Thursday at the KZN Blind and Deaf Society Hall.
Afrika Tikkun Services will implement and manage the programme, which involves 32 schools in the region, on behalf of YES.
The programme is underpinned by the appeal by President Cyril Ramaphosa, given the high unemployment rate, for the private and corporate sectors to create employment opportunities for the youth.
Both YES and Afrika Tikkun Services are fully involved in youth development pro-grammes and provide advisory, recruitment, training and placement opportunities in various sectors of the economy. The services are sponsored by major corporate companies in South Africa.
The aim of the YES programme is to provide the youth with the necessary employability skills to ensure that they become employable citizens, while the goal of Afrika Tikkun Services is to create an economically thriving South African society by investing in our youth. To be eligible for the programme candidates must meet certain criteria and be between the ages of 18 and 35. A thorough screening is conducted before they are placed into any position.
The local programme was initiated by Saira Khan, regional executive of Afrika Tikkun Services and a member of the school governing body (SGB) of Newholme Primary School.
"As the regional executive, I realised that most of the programmes focused on youth in the Durban region and Pietermaritzburg was being left out. As a member of the SGB, I also became aware that the focus of the Department of Education was on non-fee paying schools and that fee paying schools were becoming increasingly under pressure to meet their commitments to sustain their schools.
"I spoke to my colleagues at Afrika Tikkun Services and motivated for Pietermaritzburg to become part of the programme.
Initially I was not successful but through my persistence and insistence, our region was added to the programme," Khan said.
She added that educator assistants were initially not part the employment programme, but there was a need for them at schools.
"We called a meeting of principals in the region and over 45 attended. BMW and Toyota have come on board as sponsors and 200 students have been placed in 32 schools," she said.
Khan said that over 5000 applications were received for the 200 positions, and depending on the need, between four and 13 EAs were allocated to each school.
"The SGBs have further committed to retain 30% of their EAs afterthe 12 month contact period expires.
This will ensure that the programme is sustainable," Khan added.
A number of EAs were present at the launch.
Farnaaz Khan, an educator assistant at WA Lewitt Primary School, said that the initiative was a wonderful concept.
"It is a lovely initiative. Apart from being paid while working, I am also gaining experience to prepare myself for full-time employment," Khan said.
Newholme Primary School provided the training and hosted the launch which was attended by representatives of BMW and Toyota, officials of the Department of Education, staff of local schools and facilitators.