Cape Town - The City of Cape Town recently announced that it will make a further R13 million investment towards upskilling the youth. According to the city, so far their Cape Skills and Employment Accelerator Project has already up-skilled over 1400 young people, all of whom have secured permanent employment after the conclusion of their training.
The Cape Skills and Employment Accelerator Project is a collaboration project between the City of Cape Town and the National Skills Fund (NSF), creating employment opportunities for marginalised youth and women. Under the initiative, the City contributed R55 million over three years towards training and work placement in companies in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and clothing and textile sectors.
“It’s great to witness the fruits of this project, especially as it directly impacts vulnerable Capetonians who were desperately in need of a paying job and channels revenue into Cape Town’s GDP.
“As I have previously said, our higher purpose as public servants is to serve those who still suffer the indignity and deprivation of poverty by growing the economy and laying the groundwork for opportunities. Through initiatives such as the Cape Skills and Employment Accelerator project, we are making a meaningful impact in the fight against unemployment,” City of Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, said.
“To date, almost 1400 unemployed and previously disadvantaged individuals have been trained for call centres, and every single one of them has been offered permanent employment upon successful completion of their training. This is against a target of 1 100 people, meaning that the project has over-delivered by almost 30%,” Alderman James Vos, the City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth said.
To be a part of the programme, qualifying candidates need to register on the Skills Passport online portal, after which they do a series of assessments. Candidates are then selected for a 12-month training programme with the City’s Special Business Partner (SBP), CapeBPO, during which time they also receive a monthly stipend and workplace experience.
Application for the programme’s clothing, textile and furnishing training is open until 28 February 2022.
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