Preparing matriculants for the jobs market

Recognising that skills training is about a lot more than academic training, recruitment specialist Lee Botti & Associates has developed a workshop programme that prepares some of the most disadvantaged communities in the Western Cape for the jobs market. Branded iThuba – which means opportunity in both Xhosa and Zulu – the programme teaches matriculants from disadvantaged communities how to draw up CVs, how to apply for jobs, how to conduct themselves at interviews, and the value of taking up temp positions during school holidays. The project was launched in 2012 and has to date trained over 3500 learners. According to Lee Botti & Associates managing director Lee Botti, who runs the workshops, the biggest insight has been the level of difficulty faced by the students. “Many have not been to the Waterfront, yet they live a mere 30 kilometres away.” The Iziko Maritime Museum provides the venue while the project is sponsored by Contract Forwarding and the Exporters’ Club of Cape Town, whose contributions help to cover the cost of the buses. Now Media prints a booklet which is given to the students as a reference guide once they enter the job market and Lee Botti & Associates sponsors all other costs associated with running the workshops twice a month. According to Botti, many teachers accompanying groups have painted a grim picture of opportunities for school leavers, saying the youth have lost hope. “The workshop teaches the students the opposite, showing them that hard work, determination and attitude will change their lives. We have posted learnership vacancies onto the iThuba Facebook page which has a following of past students. Through this, some students have found and completed learnerships and have come back to us to be placed after they have qualified.” INSERT The workshop teaches the students that hard work, determination and attitude will change their lives. – Lee Botti CAPTION Lee Botti puts a student through her paces.