Alfeco held its Alfeco Graduation Ceremony in honour of sixty-five learners who have completed portable skills training activities that target skilled & unskilled unemployed youth, matriculants, varsity students, and unemployed graduates.
The graduates completed skills development activities such as Production Technology learnerships, Metallurgical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering Internships. The training initiatives are in partnerships with Dee Empire, Imisebenzi Development Agency and Nhlanhla P.S Holdings.
“Our business continuity strategy relies on our indispensable skills development initiatives that continuously aim to cultivate the development of critical and portable skills in the metals sector, economically empower youth from poor backgrounds within the communities it operates by training to hire,” says Alfeco Business Strategy Director, Neil Reddy.
Reddy adds that this is achieved by supporting the South African National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and the Skills Development Act, to empower the youth through various development campaigns to equip them for the workplace.
“As such, we cherish our partnership with the national training authority Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services SETA (MerSETA), who ensure our essential skills training initiatives materialise.”
Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science & Innovation, Mr. Buti Manamela, gave the keynote address at the event in which he implored the graduates to aspire for entrepreneurship which they would pass on the baton to other individuals in future.
“In helping you address your personal development needs or career aspirations, in a country like ours, your academic training must also enable you to do some of the following:
It must empower you with the knowledge and skills to become employment creators.
You must become part of that generation that helps us move away from the crisis of having unemployed graduates.
Most significantly, you must be part of the generation that is going to design community programmes that will inculcate a sense of positive purpose in the youth of our country, especially in the townships and villages,” says Manamela.
Client Relations Manager at MerSETA, Vusimusi Mkhatshwa administered the prize giving befittingly so. “Julia Gillard once said, ‘Through hard work and education we can deliver a strong economy and opportunity for all.’ The partnership between MerSETA and Alfeco has provided hundreds of young people from poor family backgrounds with opportunities to be trained, developed, and employed.
The company has opened all their workplaces to be a training space for the youth in the country. The fact that the company train the youth to employ them continues to assist in reducing the high youth unemployment rate in South Africa,” says Mkhatshwa.
According to Mkhatshwa, MerSETA remains passionately committed to providing support to learners from poor and working-class backgrounds through skills development opportunities.
“We continue to urge the youth to look for development and growth opportunities offered within our Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services sector through Alfeco,” he says.
Ever steadfast in altering the route that unemployed youth currently find themselves in – where they are unskilled and not sought after by organisations – Alfeco goes against the grain, turning them into assets through skills development and training.
