Internship and learnership programme to help increase skills and employability opportunities for Nkonkobe youth - NEDA

BY: Ayabonga Nkalitshana

The municipality together with its entity, NEDA identified the rampant lack of skills as one of the contributing factors to the high unemployment rate amongst the youth, therefore by embarking on the learnership and internship programme in partnership with services SETA, the municipality is tackling the scourge of unemployment and lack of skills in the municipal area said Mr Mandisi Mali Chief Executive of the Nkonkobe economic development agency.

He said this at the workshop of induction held by NEDA together with services SETA at the University Of Fort Hare through its programme to empower and equip the unemployed and unskilled youth within the Nkonkobe area with skills that would increase their chances of employability. The main aim of the programme is to build a wide skills base among the youth to enable mass participation in the local economy.

  The program is to offer about 510 youths which were chosen out of over a thousand applications learnerships and internships which will give them the opportunity to get on the job experience and increase their chances of employability as skilled workers and also entrepreneurs.” Nkonkobe is faced with massive unemployment and the youth continue to be affected by the challenge” said Mr Mali. He continued to say”in order for nkonkobe to achieve its vision of being ‘self sufficient’ it means that the youth must be given opportunities and be empowered”

The programme will run for a period of 12 months (1year), within that period learners will be exposed to actual work environment and also be taught theoretic knowledge. They will also be given a monthly stipend of R1500 each month until the end of the programme. 440 youths are going to be enrolled in a learnership programme; those are the people who have gone up to matric as a qualification. And then the internships will be awarded to 70 people who have higher education qualifications.