Skills Development Center for the unemployed youth

Mankosi Skills Development Center

3-month report, January to March 2020

Introduction

The Skills Development Center was established to combat the youth unemployment rate in the rural area of the Eastern Cape in South Africa. Our village calls Mankosi and we have a souring youth unemployment rate of about 85%. No employment opportunities and very little industry are the main reasons for this dilemma.

An enthusiastic team of local and foreign volunteers has taken on the challenge to change this dire situation. The beginning of 2020 saw a lot of positive changes and progress of the project.

Adult Education and Training (AET)

Last year we engaged in negotiations with the Department of Higher Education to start up Adult Basic Education and Training, as part of the Skills Development center. This program entails the possibility to learn English, Mathematics and very important Health and Life Skills as an adult with the opportunity to achieve a diploma that entitles the students to further their education in TVET colleges in South Africa or get excepted in other educational institutions. 29 students enrolled in the program. 10 males and 19 females. They were giving an option to choose a variety of courses. Besides learning to speak and write in English and learn basic Mathematics they also focus on Economics and Management Science, Tourism, Ancillary Health Care and Early Childhood Development. The Department of Higher Education gave us 4 very nice and competent teachers, who are now living with us in the village. They conduct the classes 4 days a week from Monday to Thursday for 4 hours a day.

The attendance rate is very good even if our students have to walk for 1 to 2 hours to get to and fro classes.  

Sewing workshop

Since last year we have been busy training two women from the community to become our sewing skills teachers for the SDC. Nosphelele and Nomandla once again attended a private 5-day workshop in Mthatha, to expand their knowledge. They learned how to make smart long and short pants for men with pockets and zips. They also learned how to sew button-up shirts and casual shirts for men. There was a request for those items from the community. Furthermore, they make fancy bags with a cord to sell at the Backpackers together with the women trousers and crunchies.

Because the sewing businesses are doing well, we decided to take on our first student. Nolethu is a young woman from the northern part of our Mankosi community. She was unemployed and lived in poverty. Nosphelele started training her at the beginning of February and she is doing very well. She already had previous sewing skills and is learning fast. She has already created an income for herself, selling trousers in her village. We are happy to welcome this new enthusiastic member of our team.

Building a Skills Development Center  

The Skills Development Center is still in need of a building. We would like to build a structure that can house the sewing workshop, an AET classroom as the existing classroom is too small for the demand, and an office for the SDC manager, Khanyisa.

Our volunteer Mirthe from the Netherlands made contact with friends back home who are architects and they helped us to design a simple but pretty building. We are in the process to write a proposal and budget to start fundraising for the building.

Driver Licenses

We are happy to report that Daniel, our community volunteer who has taken up the responsibility to head up the driver license endorsement program; has passed his official theoretical learner driver test. He received his certificate and attended practical driving lessons in Mankosi and also in Mthatha town. He is already a confident driver and he will go for his practical test as soon and the COVID-19 lockdown is over.

Computer Skills

We have got 10 laptops and fast internet established to start with the first course to transfer computer skills to students. A hiccup is that we still do not have electricity at our center, therefore we will have to charge the laptops with a generator. Eskom the power supplier, visited our area at the beginning of February and surveyed the area for planting poles. They promised to start implementing it in two weeks but nothing happened yet. We received two quotations from Mthatha companies who could hold a certified 2-week basic skills course. The courses are very expensive and exceeded our budget right now. At the moment we are trying out an accredited online course with Udemy. Daniel our driving licenses manager is our Guinuepig, for the course. He has no previous experience with computers and will learn, Office programs like Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Access. The course is 56 hours long and after completion, we will evaluate the quality and success.

Agroecology  

We established a relationship with an NPO calls Biowatch. They are our biggest advocates for agroecology in the country. Thulani, our agroecology volunteer, was supposed to go visit them and observe for 7 days as it is harvest time. Unfortunately, Thulani could not make it because he was very busy working as a lifeguard and at the backpackers. He will have more time after May 2020 and we will hopefully be able to observe planting season.  

Volunteers

The project invites volunteers to apply their skills to advance the program. We were lucky to host two volunteers. Mark came for 5 weeks from the Netherlands, to engage with AET students. He is studying to become a teacher and his mission was to develop tools to direct our participants towards correct career choices and sustainable income in the long run. The students appricated his input and were very grateful for his knowledge. His commitment was amazing and we learned a lot about the unemployment crisis.

We are very lucky to have Katrien as well. She is from Belgium and will be with us for a few months. She has got experience in branding and marketing and is helping us with our social media platforms. Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram mankosi.sdc

Thank you very much for all of your support.

Without you, this would have not been possible.

Yours faithfully,

Astrid Gifford

MD TransCape NPO