Career Development Programme

In a nutshell

Afrika Tikkun's Career Development Programme provides career guidance, job readiness training, job placement and bursaries for further learning. This is targeted at young adults with a matric or equivalent between the ages of 19-29yrs.

What we do

The Career Development Programme aims to transform the lives of South African young people and prepare them for participating constructively in the country's economy. It achieves this by striving to develop an entry to mid-level workforce with the empowerment of young job seekers. Through its Work Experience Programme, learnerships, internships and entry level placements, it provides a vital range of solutions in its skills development and job creation toolkit.

The programme is ongoing – we offer 1-2-3-month skills development courses at all our centres, every quarter.

How we do it

We aim to reduce unemployment by empowering young people in the context of the family. This is why we focus on education, personal development, nutrition, health, family support, skills development, and ultimately work placement. This approach defines our Cradle-to-Career360˚ model.

1. Learnerships (Skills Development) – structured learning programmes linked to a qualification. Afrika Tikkun handles all administration and compliance elements.
2. Work experience (Unemployment Tax Incentive) – shared risk placement in partnership with Afrika Tikkun. Companies provide a structured work assignment for 6-12 months along with a donation from client of R 2500.00 per candidate. This has a tax rebate. Afrika Tikkun handles all HR elements including all payroll, mentoring, and administration.
3. Direct job placement – we provide companies with a host of suitable candidates for employment within businesses based on a defined job specification.
4. Indirect job placement (YES Initiative) – we identify and match candidates to potential hosts companies (i.e. NGOs SMMEs) that will provide the job assignments for young people under the company’s payroll as per the YES initiative. We facilitate the placement and provide support to the host organisation for supervision and mentoring to the conclusion of the 12 month engagement.

What we have achieved

Over the past four years, Afrika Tikkun has placed over 2500 young people effectively across different sectors. Afrika Tikkun is moving towards providing more bespoke training, and is currently offering qualification and placement in web design, network security, the luxury retail sector and hospitality.

What we have learned

Imperative for all areas

• Correct recruitment is everything. Without the correct candidate being chosen, from the start, the process will be complicated and difficult with the possibility that the candidate will not fulfil their roles and responsibilities in the work place and in their training. The correct candidate will be one who has completed our CDP work readiness programme and has been screened with the position in mind.
• Matching the right candidate to the role is imperative, if this is not done the candidate does not have any passion for what they do and will ultimately end up disappointing.
• We have found that if a candidate is already in a full time position they tend to weigh up their current job to the position that they have just been offered. This often results in clients not only wasting their time for interviews but frustrates the client as they make a decision and then the client is let down due to the fact that the candidate changes their mind or they tend to be absent in the new position.
• Proximity of location of candidates to training/opportunity location is imperative – Where possible always recruit candidates to the host site (company) which is closest to where they reside.

Learnerships

• Finding the correct service providers is also imperative.
• Inductions not only for the candidate but also for the client are most beneficial, as it creates a more personal relationship.
• Regular meetings with the mentors and candidate in a learnership is very important, as this keeps both parties committed to their roles and responsibilities.
• Matching the correct learner with a host site, close to where they reside, is also imperative.
• Matching the right candidate to the right learnership qualification, based on their interests and where they see themselves in the future.

Work Experience/Placements

• Correct matching and being on board, is everything.
• A clear job description should be outlined for the candidate.
• Match the right candidate with the right job specification.
• Support the candidate throughout their time in the work experience programme.

 

A special thank-you to Catherine Sofianos for compiling this project profile. Catherine Sofianos is a Communications Specialist at Afrika Tikkun. For more information on the Career Development Programme, please contact:

• Email: catherinev@afrikatikkun.org     
• No.: +27 (0)11 325 5914