CAPE TOWN - The City of Cape Town on Wednesday said it has invested R6.5 million into the Cape Information Technology Initiative (CiTi), for skills development programmes to train 100 young people from previously disadvantaged areas across the city.
The city's mayoral committee member for economic opportunities, James Vos, said the areas include Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Macassar, Strandfontein, Hanover Park, Milnerton, Philippi, Retreat, and Mfuleni. He said the city has been supporting these specific skills development programmes to the tune of over R21 million between 2012/13 to December 2018.
“CiTi uses the funding to train young people with tech skills to support the rapidly growing sector in Cape Town. Through the City of Cape Town funding, CiTi has trained 1,719 people and placed just over 400 people in jobs. The majority of these beneficiaries were young people,” Vos said, adding that the training programme for these 100 students was structured in such a manner that it introduced the young people to entry-level information communication and technology infrastructure, and fundamental data analytics skills.
The technical training component is offered for a period of six months, followed by the completion of a six-month stint as interns on work-related training placements. Between July 2018 and February 2019, 420 young people have been trained through this programme, according to Vos.
“The trained candidates were placed in internships following their training. I would also like to personally encourage private companies and potential employers to get involved by hosting unemployed individuals for workplace experience opportunities too,” he said.
“Government alone cannot create job opportunities, while we do as much as we can, we need the private sector as partners in this journey to make a dent in youth unemployment.”
Vos added that the government was continuously working towards reducing the unemployment rate and every single job created, training offered, or entrepreneurs and start-ups assisted were sure ways of creating more jobs.
“I am also very excited to announce that in July this year we will open a business hub in the Strand Street Concourse. This will be a one-stop business hub which will offer facilitation services for small businesses that will interact with the municipality as well as provide business support services through a network of partners,” he explained.
“The enterprise and investment department runs numerous projects and programmes aimed at helping entrepreneurs, small businesses and start-ups. The business hub will give entrepreneurs direct access to these services. While we are able to do what we can to help, young people are urged to start creating opportunities for themselves and reaching-out for help that is at hand,” Vos added.
The city’s Small Business Support office can be contacted on the telephone number 021 417 4043, or via email: [email protected]