Employability training - Unemployed South Africans

2011 was the first year in which we had a full year of training on the employability program. More than 2,000 people participated in the program. When we created the training we included an evaluation tool which participants complete before they start training and then at some point whilst in training and finally after all the modules are completed. 

The focus of the program is to build skills which we refer to as soft skills, we are trying to get people to change behaviors and shift perspective. The evaluation covers the individual’s attitude or feelings about how they approach work, how they communicate, are they reliable and organised, how they relate to customers and are they ready to deliver excellent service. They provide a self evaluation at each stage with a low score of 1 and a high score of 6. 

Participant reported a change in score from an average of 3.5 to 4.9 which reflects a significant reported shift in mind set. There has also been a significant impact on our members average evaluation score while working. There is still much work to be done to reach a broader audience and to deliver the program repeatedly so as to improve its impact.