Anglo American Zimele’s sectoral approach to youth development aims to recruit and train a further 2 970 youths in the next four years.
This follows the announcement of a collaboration between Zimele’s implementation partner in the programme, Summit and Silversea Cruises, the world’s premium ultra-luxury cruise line, to provide employment opportunities for youth trained in the Anglo American Zimele hospitality and tourism programmes.
It was said to be set to receive a major boost with a possible employment of up to 250 students at a luxury cruise line in June.
The collaboration would see Silversea Cruises employing between 180 and 250 youth from Anglo American’s host communities in various hospitality roles on board its cruise ships.
These recruits were all part of Anglo American Zimele’s youth development programme which was established to upskill host communities where Anglo American has mining operations in South Africa in careers which were high in demand.
They have all completed training with summit in one of the following accredited hospitality qualifications: assistant chef, housekeeping, and food and beverage management.
Larisha Naidoo, head of Anglo American Zimele, said this was a great milestone for the programme and for youth development in their host communities. “Youth unemployment remains one of the major challenges that South Africa is facing and this partnership is one of the ways in which we are making a contribution towards reducing unemployment and poverty in the areas where we operate through impactful skilling,” Naidoo said.
The partnership between Zimele and Summit was part of Zimele’s sectoral approach to youth development, which was designed to create sustainable employment opportunities for young people who faced significant barriers to entry to the workplace.
Through this programme, Anglo American Zimele sought to improve the livelihoods of young South Africans by providing them with relevant skills to enable them to secure employment opportunities in the tourism, hospitality and retail sectors, recruitment and placement support into national and global companies and ongoing coaching and mentorship.
Matthew Lambert, managing director of Summit, said they were excited to partner with Anglo American Zimele and Silversea Cruises in this skills development programme.
“The initiative will provide much-needed employment opportunities for young graduates. Our purpose is to educate, empower and employ our learners, and we are grateful for Silversea’s commitment to this shared purpose,” Lambert said.
The collaboration with Silversea would provide comprehensive training specific to the cruise line to selected candidates to ensure they were equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to work on board its luxury cruise ships.
Marin Drlje, talent acquisition manager of Silversea Cruises, said they were pleased with this collaboration to offer employment opportunities to unemployed youth in South Africa.
“As a business, we recognise our responsibility to make a positive impact on the countries in which we operate. We believe that by offering training and employment opportunities, we can help young people build a brighter future for themselves and their families,” Drlje said.
The collaboration was said to align with Silversea’s commitment to support local communities and promote sustainable tourism practices. By providing employment opportunities to young people, the initiative aimed to contribute to economic growth in the communities the recruits come from and to reduce unemployment.
This was also said to represent an innovative approach to address the high unemployment rate among the young population in the country. The programme also aimed to provide a model for other businesses in the tourism industry to follow in creating sustainable employment opportunities and promoting social inclusion.
In total, 1 316 beneficiaries have completed training as assistant chefs, table attendants and assistant housekeepers, which is offered as part of the hospitality and tourism programme rolled out at various host community sites for Platinum and Kumba Iron Ore last year.
The students receive strong support, including a travel allowance to attend the contact sessions, mobile gadgets to undertake training sessions virtually and work-integrated learning for them to get practical experience on the vocations for which they were being trained. Opportunities for large placement of learners outside of host communities continued to be explored with a total of 789 learners from this programme already placed in employment.
In her budget vote in May last year, former tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu emphasised the value of tourism in the economy, as it contributed 3.7% to the country’s gross domestic product, more than agriculture, utilities and construction.
To further illustrate its importance, she pointed out that travel and tourism was an important driver for job creation globally in that one in 10 jobs, which amounts to 344 million, were created worldwide in the industry in 2019. At the time, Sisulu said the department planned to double South Africa’s share of the global figure in the next five years.
BUSINESS REPORT