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Skills Development Programme The NMCF approach focuses on the potential of young people to contribute positively to their own development and that of their respective communities; creating an environment for the youth to build and enhance their potential to achieve. The NMCF has a three-pronged focus to skills development results, namely; the identification and addressing of gaps in entrepreneurship models; strengthening the institutional capacity of implementing partners; and finally, increase access of youth to information, opportunities and resources in order to enhance their passage to gainful employment and/or to create their own jobs. Young people have been the most adversely affected population sub-group by the problem of unemployment. It is estimated that youth constitute 52% of the unemployed. Youth unemployment is visible with young matriculants and those with tertiary qualifications out of employment. Only a few young school leavers have been able to find employment in the formal sector, with the rest adding to the increasing numbers of the unemployed. This calls for efforts aimed at empowering youth with skills that would increase their chances to create jobs and gain employment. As a result of attaining these skills, youth could then conduct community needs and situational assessments, plan, capitalise and start their own business enterprises. Although entrepreneurship is one the biggest growing sectors of the economy and has the greatest potential for the alleviation of poverty, many small business enterprises have failed to survive. It is estimated that over 80% of new Small Micro Medium Enterprises (SMME)'s collapse within the first two years of operation. The NMCF is best positioned to coordinate and lead a multifaceted response to the plight of children and youth in South Africa given the partnerships it has engendered at all levels of society over the past nine years of its operations. The NMCF has already invested considerable resources in this sector and is building a knowledge base on supporting youth skills development and entrepreneurship to guide policy development, implementation and programmatic responses. Skills Development Programme: Goal and Purpose The goal of the programme is to improve the opportunities for skills development for children and youth for participation in the formal economy. The NMCF will implement this programme through supporting existing institutions and organisations involved in skills development and working with out-of-school and out-of-work youth, including youth living with disabilities as the direct beneficiaries. The indirect beneficiaries include communities, municipal and provincial government departments that have the responsibility for delivering skills development services to children and youth. The programme will therefore contribute to the national economy as well as individual livelihoods. Synopsis Skills 1. Vukani Ubuntu Community Development Project/ Attredgeville Jewellery Project and Umjindi Jewellery Projects Vukani Ubuntu provides Jewellery Design & Manufacturing training (Skills Development) with 100+ historically disadvantaged learners across SA every year and directly adds to their employability and self-employment possibilities. The projects also focus on re-introducing the African traditions and history of jewellery manufacture and allows for local influences in jewellery design. 2. Agape Copeland Train Agape Copeland Train (ACT) is based in Upington in the Northern Cape. The programme equips young people with innovative study techniques and life skills to become agents of social change in their respective communities. The programme targets 505 young people between the ages of 16-19 from disadvantaged communities within the Northern Cape. The group is required to plough back into the communities using their newly acquired skills. The objective is to establish a cadre of critical thinkers who act within timeless spaces as social entrepreneurs 3. Business Skills Development Centre The organisation provides business skills to youth especially women. The programme targets unemployed youth who cannot afford tertiary education. The project will train 40 young people this year and provide mentoring to the same group and assist them to establish small businesses. 4. Education with Enterprise Trust Education with Enterprise Trust (EWET) Youth Enterprise Society (YES) programme targets grade 9 to 11 in-school youth within communities with high levels of poverty and limited access to opportunities. The organisation will work with two societies consisting 45 learners each and one local partnership which will be the Maluti a Phofong Youth Network consisting 12 members of the network. The organisation will be assisting the youth network in developing systems and acquiring a legal status. 5. Ipelegeng Youth Leadership Project Ipelegeng Youth Leadership project is based in Soweto. It works with youth, training and supporting them to become productive and active members of the society. It runs training workshops in community services, Life skills, Health and Vocational training. 6. Learn to Earn The Programme targets unemployed young people in the Khayelitsha area. Developed through Basic Computer Training (225 students) and Computer Graphic Training (135 students) to gain skills in these fields that will allow them to become economically active. The training will not only address the high incidence of unemployment in the area but increase the opportunities of successful integration into the economically active sector. The students will also receive Business Skills to develop their entrepreneurial opportunities, life skills to equip them socially and emotionally and discipleship training to assist with spiritual development. This will ensure that they not only receive the skills but also the means by which to implement them. 7. Save the Children Gauteng Sizolomphakathi is skills programming facilitated by Save the Children Fund Gauteng in Mpumalanga and the programme provides vocational skills to 20 young people per annum with a total of sixty over a three-year period. The participants are provided with vocational, business and life skills, they also assisted to set up their small business. 8. Sparrow Skills Education Trust Education and Training programme for young people with intellectual disability from disadvantaged communities. The programme targets children and youth between the ages of 14 and 18 who have various degrees of intellectual learning disabilities. The project will work with an estimate of 210 young people within the 2007-08 financial year.
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