From apprentice to entrepreneur To address the national skills shortage, create jobs and tackle unemployment, the IDC has created 40 youth entrepreneurs in no less than 12 months.

"100 percent of the learners from the previous intake have been employed in the formal sector."

Initiated by the IDC’s Internal Learning and Development Department, the Internship Programme aims to groom unemployed graduates for employment and to meet the development mandate of the IDC. Interns are demographically representative, incorporating disabled learners. To address the lack of entrepreneurs in the country and in support of the Umsobomvu Youth Fund and Youth Entrepreneurship Campaign 2010, i.e. turning youngsters into entrepreneurs, the IDC tweaked its Internship Programme for the 2008/2009 intake by adding a Business Management component.  Through this component, each intern has started his/her own entrepreneurial business project, giving each an opportunity to apply their skills and learning.

The interns are managing their business with the guidance and support of the IDC. They are taught entrepreneurial and business skills, ranging from managing finances to human resources management. Businesses range from cosmetics, beauty and accessory franchises to printing, virtual prepaid airtime, photography and video, insurance and even chicken farming.  Some of the youth entrepreneurs have been so successful, that they in turn have employed staff.

Says Sharon Tshuma, who started a printing business: “I’ve employed three representatives and managed to buy a computer desk, scanner, printer and copier. My business has shown growth since inception”.

Allen Ngwenya too started a printing business and has employed family members and friends, who earn commission from sales. “The business has been growing positively monthly,” he says.

Having their own business gives those interns, who have not yet been employed, the opportunity to still earn a living. Most of the interns want to continue with and even expand their businesses, like Promise Dube, a Honey Fashion Accessories consultant: “I would love to continue with this business, and have been saving some of my profit to take a talented boy in my community, who is so dedicated to his studies, to an art school. Promise too has employed three sales representatives. “This lead to an increase in sales, proving that employees are an integral part in any business,” she says.

Five learners from the 2007/2008 intake have established their own Section 21 Company, N’wanudzuku Development, which aims to mobilise resources and encourage skills development in townships, particularly in rural areas. The initiative has been piloted in schools in and around the North West, where the five youth entrepreneurs talk to learners about entrepreneurship and provide career counselling and guidance.

The Internship Programme has proven to be highly successful as 100 percent of the learners from the previous intakes have been employed in the formal sector. The duration of the internship is 12 months.  

“The Department of Labour is behind this skills development strategy, and through the IDC participation, new graduates are funded to participate in the internship that will up skill them in line with the needs of the economy, and import skills that will make them employable. The programme supports both the needs of the sector and the needs of national government, who have identified the skills shortage as the main barrier to economic growth and development. These programmes are in line with the AsgiSA and JIPSA initiatives,” says Holger Fischer, Head: Internal Learning & Development.