Heeding the President’s Call
With youth unemployment continuing to be one of South Africa’s leading problems, The Motheo Academy has been doing its part to alleviate the pressure.
When President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the Youth Employment Services campaign, commonly known as YES, he created a feeling of hope among the many young people who find themselves without employment. The YES initiative sees government and the business sector collaborating to provide more jobs and apprenticeships to young people in the country. The idea is that businesses offer year-long courses that give young people on-the-job training and pays them for it. The end result is getting those young people into the working environment and creating jobs. The Motheo Academy has had a similar agenda and has been actively training unemployed young people, shaping them for work in the construction industry. The academy, which is run by Geoffrey Kemper, is focused on delivering skills development solutions that truly empower South Africans with the skills, experience and capabilities they need to transform their lives. When speaking about YES, Geoffrey said: “We are very excited about YES because it is in line with what we believe will make a difference to the lives of young people in this country. As Motheo, we have made a commitment to support the initiative.” The Motheo Academy is already, outside of other curriculums and learnerships that it conducts, training many young people in various built environment fields. This group is working all of the Motheo businesses in gaining knowledge and experience in the field and being compensated for it. This bridges the gap between learning and earning that President Ramaphosa has been speaking about. As Motheo goes above and beyond the President’s call in terms of the number of young people it is working with, the Motheo Academy is also very keen to help other businesses in the market achieve the same results. “We have built a framework that truly empowers young people and also helps businesses get skilled people into their workforce; this is something we are interested in spreading. Which is why we offer the service to other corporates who want to do their part and want to ensure that well-trained qualified people join their companies as the long-term plan,” Geoffrey explains. For more about the YES initiative, visit www.yes4youth.co.za
