Media Release: Skills Mecca gets another strategic partner on board
For Immediate Release 29 August 2023
The socio-economic programme of the Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM), known as the Garden Route Skills Mecca, through its partnerships at local, district, metro, provincial, national, sectoral, and international levels, supports skills development.
On Friday, 25 August 2023 the Garden Route District Municipal Manager, Monde Stratu, Heads of Departments from Planning and Economic Development, Lusanda Menze and Corporate Services, Trix Holtzhausen as well as the Skills Mecca team and their partners, the South Cape TVET College and Africa Skills Village, met with a new emerging national partner, the National Business Initiative (NBI).
The NBI as it is known, is a voluntary coalition of South African and multinational companies, working towards sustainable growth and development in South Africa and the shaping of a sustainable future through responsible business action, thereby demonstrating business action for sustainable growth.
One of their many programmes includes the Installation, Repair, and Maintenance (IRM) Initiative which has already been successfully implemented in other parts of the country and has now arrived to support the Garden Route Skills Mecca.
Initially, the partnership will focus on the rollout of numerous renewable energy interventions, but progressively the partnership will start to build a local Garden Route ecosystem of sustainable small job creation processes in all the strategic focus areas of the Garden Route Growth and Development Strategy.
This new partnership is a direct outcome of the recent highly successful third Garden Route Skills Summit held in Knysna on 13 July 2023.
Media Release: Garden Route District Municipality Grows the Capacity of Skills Mecca Programme
For Immediate Release 18 August 2023
The Garden Route Skills Mecca (GRSM), which forms part of the Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM), aspires to increase employability of youth. The GRSM has 11 young people known as GRSM Technicians who drive the implementation of skills development projects and programmes at a grass route-level across all seven municipal areas of the Garden Route.
On 15 August 2023, Technicians started their training in a Work-based Learning and development Practitioner programme. This programme, which will end on 28 September 2023, seeks to enhance their competencies as facilitators of stakeholder based processes. Further they will be equipped with the skills to ability to place young people at workplaces for work-based learning experience. Both these competencies are critical if the Garden Route is to ensure that young people are offered opportunities for work experience that is by far the best way to ultimately become employed.
AFRIKAANS
Die Garden Route Skills Mecca program (GRSM), wat deel vorm van die Tuinroete Distriksmunisipaliteit (TDM), streef daarna om die indiensneembaarheid van jongmense in die distrik te verhoog. Die GRSM het 11 jongmense wat bekendstaan as GRSM Tegnikuste regoor die sewe Tuinroete munisipale areas. Hierdie jongmense is verantwoordelik vir die implementering van vaardigheidsontwikkelingsprojekte en programme op ‘n grondvlakfase.
Op Dinsdag 15 Augustus 2023, het Tegnikuste hul opleiding in ‘n Werkgebaseerde Leer- en Ontwikkelingpraktisyn Program begin. Hierdie program, wat op 28 September 2023 sal eindig, poog daarin om hul bevoegdhede as fasiliteerders van belanghebbende gebaseerde prosesse te verbeter. Verder sal hulle toegerus word met die nodige vaardighede om jongmense by werkplekke te plaas vir werkgebaseerde leerervaring. Beide hierdie vaardighede is van kritieke belang, indien die Tuinroete wil verseker dat jongmense in die streek geleenthede gebied word om werkservaring wat verreweg die beste manier is om uiteindelik in diens te kom, op te doen.
TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES: CLOTHING MANUFACTURING PROCESSES NQF LEVEL 1
Notice no: 109/2023
The Garden Route District Municipality in partnership with the Haggai 2v8 Company, offers an opportunity to 30 (thirty) unemployed young people who wish to participate in the Skills Programme for a period of 6 months.
Applications are invited from unemployed persons, with Communication and Numeracy at ABET level 3 as a minimum requirement, targeting candidates between the ages 18 – 35 years.
The applications should be submitted online by visiting the Garden Route District Municipality’s website at www.gardenroute.gov.za. The required documentation to be uploaded including a Curriculum Vitae (CV), certified copy of highest qualification, certified copy of an ID, proof of residence and bank statement that are less than 3 months old.
Failure to upload the required documents will result in the application not being considered. No faxed or e- mailed documents will be considered.
IMPORTANT NOTE: DISABLED PERSONS ARE ENCOURAGED TO APPLY.
Application process: Applications must be done online on the Garden Route District Municipality’s website at www.gardenroute.gov.za by creating an online profile. Follow the steps as indicated. All required documentation must be uploaded.
If applicants are not contacted by 30 September 2023, please consider the application as unsuccessful.
The Garden Route District Municipality reserves the right not to make or confirm an appointment.
Media Release: Garden Route Skills Mecca gaining momentum
For Immediate Release 18 July 2023
The Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) socio-economic programme known as the Garden Route Skills Mecca (GRSM) held its third Skills Summit and inaugural Career Festival in Knysna last week from 13 – 14 July 2023. The Garden Route Skills Summit was attended by more than 200 delegates, who included several high-profile partners that will greatly benefit the Garden Route.
Home-based care practitioners with Municipal Manager, Monde Stratu (front) and other municipal representatives at the Garden Route Skills Summit.
The GRSM is grounded in its partnerships that allow the organisation or individuals to partner with the GRSM for future skills development programs and services.
The four (4) critical partners of the Garden Route Skills Mecca and beneficiaries of the GRSM, at the Skills Summit, included:
The Western Cape Education Department, in particular, the Eden and Central Karoo District.
The Western Cape Community Education and Training College
The Services Sector Education and Training Authority
The Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism
Through these partnerships an ongoing development programme that now integrates the schooling system and the community college structures more strongly into the Skills Mecca can be embarked on. This is new and exciting ground for the Skills Mecca as the programme expands across the Garden Route region.
Alderman Memory Booysen, during his address at the Skills Summit said: “We are on the right trajectory.”
“We will achieve success if we stay focused-driven, while keeping our vision, short-term and medium-terms in mind as we move forward.”
Alderman Memory Booysen, GRDM Executive Mayor focused on discussions around how the region can take the GRSM to the next level.
Monde Stratu, GRDM Municipal Manager introduced Home Based Care Personal Assistants to the audience. Each carer shared a brief overview of her experiences thus far.
Dr Florus Prinsloo, the GRSM Coordinator was appointed in April 2021 to bring the GRSM concept to life.
GRDM Whip of Council, Cllr Betsie van Noordwyk with the GRDM Speaker, Alderlady Georlene Wolmarans, were also in attendance at the Skills Summit
The Skills Summit allowed for a review of the Skills Mecca process and at least three new proposed solutions emerged that will need to be taken further by the Skills Mecca team:
All learners in the Skills Mecca programme should be tracked and traced after their programmes to determine how many gain employment;
The 4 local municipalities that have not to date hosted a Skills Summit – Bitou, Mossel Bay, Kannaland and Oudtshoorn – will be asked to submit formal proposals for the next Skills Summit in 2025;
A formal high-level District Coordination Forum process will be embarked upon (involving Mayors and Municipal Managers) to bring more local private sector businesses and their respective chambers and associations into the Skills Mecca process.
A new and innovative feature of the Garden Route Skills Summit was the inclusion of presentations from external stakeholders linked to business chambers or learning / employment opportunities in the Garden Route who are in support of the Skills Mecca. Five (5) such presentations were made that included:
The Skills Mecca has grown and developed over the last few years but the Summit clearly indicated that the concept needs to be taken to the next level. To give direction to that process, the Executive Mayor of the District Municipality, Alderman Memory Booysen tabled with delegates a plan to take the Skills Mecca to the next level that included a new logo and branding, a “Skills Mecca” copyright as well as the first-ever proposed vision and mission for the Skills Mecca.
According to Dr Florus Prinsloo, the GRSM Coordinator, “the Summit delegates endorsed all these proposals and they will be taken to the GRDM Council before being officially launched in the near future”.
The last part of the summit was then dedicated to a discussion and “workathon”. This segment focused on the Provincial Growth for Jobs Strategy (G4J) with a special emphasis on Priority Focus Area 7 – Improved Access to Economic Opportunities and Employability. During the various breakaway sessions, each of the seven local municipalities and the District Municipality considered the various interventions proposed under ‘Focus of Priority Focus Area 7’. The idea was for each breakaway group to identify possible existing or new projects that could drive the implementation of that intervention, forward. This work will now be taken into the various Skills Indaba processes at each local municipality and at the District level to ensure on-the-ground implementation.
While the above constructive work was in progress at the Summit, in parallel over two-days, 800 school-going youth and members and unemployed members of Knysna and surrounds attended the inaugural Career Festival. At this event, SETAs and training providers offered the attendees opportunities for exploring further learning and development.
The Garden Route Skills Summit also served as an introductory event for the Premier Council on Skills (PCS) that was held the next day on 14th July 2023 . It was the first time for the PCS to be held in Knysna.
“We need all hands-on-deck to keep our municipalities in our province functional through continuous skills development. And we should be competitive among ourselves.” Memory Booysen, Garden Route District Mayor, told the PCS.
Feature image: GRDM Executive Mayor, Ald. Memory Booysen, GRDM Municipal Manager, Monde Stratu and the GRSM Coordinator and Dr Florus Prinsloo, with the team who ensured the Skills Summit, was a success.
The Summit further promises an opportunity for a few innovative proposals to be presented by stakeholders working with local municipalities on employment-based skills development projects, and give stakeholders the opportunity to debate on how they can take the Garden Route Skills Mecca to the next level of development.
Focus will also be given to the emerging Western Cape Provincial Growth for Jobs Strategy, Primary Focus area 7 – Improved Access to Economic Opportunities and Employability and how the Skills Mecca process can integrate the implementation of the strategy with the work already being done by the Skills Mecca. This will allow for the implementation of skills development projects that is aligned to the Garden Route Growth and Development Strategy.
The deliberations at the Summit will also feed into discussions that will be take place the next day at the Premier Council on Skills at the same venue, the Knysna High School.
Careers Festival 13 – 14 July 2023 – Knysna High School Sports Ground
Hosted by the Western Cape Community Education and Training College (WCCETC), the festival aims to give over 2000 unemployed individuals and school-going youth the opportunity to engage with SETAs, as well as public and private training providers.
With many local schools in Knysna and surrounds bringing their learners, the WCCETC expects to attract 32 exhibitors that have various training and personal development programmes available to eligible applicants.
This initiative by the Garden Route District Municipality and its Garden Route Skills Mecca is funded by Services SETA and is an open-to-the-public-event taking place at the Knysna High School.
“Garden Route District Municipality, Your route to prosperity”
Media Release: GRDM awarded more than R5.2 million to train Garden Route unemployed youth as Home Based Care Personal Assistants
For Immediate Release 22 June 2023
GRDM was awarded more than R 5.2 million for training of 140 unemployed persons as Home Based Care Personal Assistants across the Garden Route district, including all seven (7) B-municipalities under the coordination of the Garden Route Skills Mecca Programme.
Dineo Ramasesane (GRSM Home Based Care Project Manager), Francisca Bruintjies (Former GRSM Technician), Clayton Peters (HWSeta), Chantolene Wilskut and Siphokazi Zukelwa (Home Based Care Personal Assistant programme participants), Ms Zubayda January (HWSeta), as well as Denise Marshall (Africa Skills Private College). The participants are placed at the Groenkloof Retirement Village.
The programme commenced on 1 March 2023 and will end by 31 August 2023. Training takes place at various training venues across the Garden Route district where students are exposed to both theoretical training and work-based learning. As part of the programme, learners receive monthly stipends, and at the end of the programme, subject to successfully completing a final assessment, they will be issued with a certificate of completion.
Provincial Manager of the Health and Welfare Sector Education and Training Authority (HWSETA), Zubayda January, on Friday, 31 March 2023, visited the Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) as part of a monitoring process organised by the GRDM Corporate Services Department.
The Health and Welfare Sector Education and Training Authority (HWSETA) aims to create an integrated approach to the development and provision of suitably skilled health and social development workers, to render quality services similar to world class standards. Their ultimate vision, therefore, is to create a skilled workforce for the health and social development needs of all South Africans.
Dineo Ramasesane, one of the twelve (12) Garden Route Skills Mecca Technicians who is based at the GRDM’s Economic Development Unit, currently provides project management assistance with the Programme’s monthly meetings and continuously gives feedback and updates to the GRDM.
All participants of the Training Programme are placed for practical experience at old age homes such as Groenkloof, Tuiniqua, Specare Old Age Home and others situated across the Garden Route district. Many of these young people that applied themselves to the learning process may be offered permanent work once the programme is completed since this an occupational programme that allows a person to earn while they learn and create a positive relationship with a possible future employer over a six month period.
Media Release: GRDM receives bursary funding of more than R10 million from LGSETA
For immediate release 20 June 2023
Last year in October 2022, the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority (LGSETA) invited stakeholders in the Local Government Sector to apply for their Discretionary Grant that is in line with their (LGSETA’s) priority areas. Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) subsequently applied for the Grant and was awarded R10 million for their bursary needs.
This application, together with applications received from other Local Government stakeholders, went through a desktop evaluation process. Through the initiative, bursaries to the value of more than R1 000 000 were approved for the internal staff that are currently pursuing studies in various fields. A total of 21 staff members are benefiting from this bursary programme while completing studies in their specialised fields. This was the first time that the GRDM have submitted applications for Internal bursaries which were all approved.
A further R2.586 000 million have been approved for the following training programmes for employed and unemployed persons across the Garden Route district:
Occupational Certificate Training in Firefighting for fifteen (15) unemployed youth = R43 600 per person.
Occupational Certificate Training in Firefighting for 5 employed = R20 000.00 per person.
Further Education and Training Certificate in Water and Wastewater Treatment Process Control Supervision for twenty-four (24) persons = R20 000 per person.
National Certificate in Water and Wastewater Process Control for fifty (50) employed persons = R20 000.00 per person.
Lastly, National Certificate Process Control training for sixteen (16) employed persons to the value of R22 000 per person has also been approved.
All funds received for the internal and external bursaries will have to be spent within the LGSETA timeframes.
In addition to the application submitted by GRDM to the LGSETA, the Municipality has made changes to its Occupational Certificate: Electrician programme, for forty-seven (47) employed persons that will be trained over a period of three years. The amended application is currently in process and the GRDM is waiting for feedback from the LGSETA. The Municipality is hopeful that a favourable response will be received.
By continuously partnering and working with the LGSETA, Local Municipalities in the Garden Route and Training Providers, the GRDM aims to reach its strategic objective, which is “a skilled workforce and community”. As a district municipality, the GRDM serves the local municipalities within the District and therefore believes in the principal of lifelong learning and supports the development of its officials towards better service delivery for all it serves.
Training Opportunities: 120 Patrol Officer Learning Opportunities Across the Garden Route
24 May 2023
Garden Route District Municipality invites unemployed youth under the age of 35, male or female, currently residing within the Garden Route District Municipal area to apply for an opportunity to become a qualified Patrol Officer as part of a Garden Route Skills Mecca Project Initiative. Opportunities are currently available within the following municipal areas within Garden Route District.
Construction Management Systems Training for Grades 5-8 Women-owned Businesses
The Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) calls on women-owned contractors with 51% shares, registered in grades 5, 6, 7 and 8 within General Building and Civil Engineering classes of works, to apply for Construction Management System (CMS) training. Construction Management System enables a business to implement a framework of processes and procedures to control its construction risks, improve performance and deliver better client value. In the long term, the CIDB will add the CMS standard as criteria for grading on the Register of Contractors.
CMS includes:
Health and Safety Management.
Quality Management; and
Environmental Management (covering air, water, land, and waste).
The CMS training programme is for the business owner or the contractor’s representative. The representative must be a permanent employee. Training will last 12 months and consists of two modules that will be presented at a workshop over five days of classroom sessions, implementing the CMS in the contractor’s organisation with support and a resources website. Prospective applicants will be required to undergo a pre-qualifying selection test.
Selection of successful applicants will be based on the following criteria:
Active CIDB registration in grades 5 to 8 GB and CE.
51% women-owned company.
The participants must be competent to attend an NQF 5-level training course.
Interested and qualifying contractors will only contribute 10% (R2 300,00) towards training, and the 90% will be covered by CIDB through the B.U.I.L.D Fund.
The Application Form can also be downloaded from CIDB website.
Applications can be emailed, hand-delivered or posted to the following addresses: E-mail:malehlohonolom@cidb.org.za Physical address: 01 Gordon Hood Road, Centurion, Pretoria, South Africa Postal address: PO Box 2107, Brooklyn Square, 0075
An organisation’s Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) describes its skills needs and the range of skills development interventions it will use to address them. It comprises of information from the Skills Audit and Personal Development Plan processes as well as the Organisational Needs Analysis through the Integrated Development Plan (IDP). To align the WSP with the IDP, the Training Section of GRDM must ensure that each employee completes a Skills Audit form and a Personal Development Plan (PDP).
On Monday, 24 April 2023, the Garden Route District Municipality’s (GRDM) Education, Training and Development Committee approved the 2023 Workplace Skills Plan. This meeting was also attended by the Western Cape Deputy Director: Training Coordination from the Department of Local Government and the Provincial Manager from the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority (LGSETA).
According to Mr Reginald Salmons, Coordinator of Skills Development of the organisation, most of the skills-related projects included in the WSP are in their implementation stages and include the Home-Based Care; Work Based Learning and Development; Renewable Workshop Assistants; Tourism and Hospitality; Water and Sanitation; Fire Fighter, Patrol Officers and Just Energy Transition Projects. “With these projects, the main objective is to eradicate unemployment in the region and make unemployed people employable by equipping them with the necessary skills, particularly the youth,” Salmons said.
Photo Caption: GRDM Municipal Manager, Monde Stratu, signing the WSP with Ms Trix Holthausen, Executive Manager of Corporate Services and officials from the Training and Development Section.
ENDS
Op Maandag, 24 April 2023 het die Tuinroete Distriksmunisipaliteit (GRDM) se Opvoeding, Opleiding en Ontwikkelingskomitee die 2023 Werkplek Vaardigheidsplan goedgekeur. Hierdie vergadering was ook bygewoon deur die Wes-Kaapse Adjunkdirekteur: Opleidingskoördinering van die Departement van Plaaslike Regering en die Provinsiale Bestuurder van die Plaaslike Regering Sektor Onderwys en Opleiding Owerheid (LGSETA).
Volgens mnr Reginald Salmons, Koördineerder van Vaardigheidsontwikkeling van die organisasie, is die meeste van die vaardigheidsverwante projekte wat in die Werkplek Vaardigheidsplan ingesluit is in hul implementeringsfases. “Die hoofdoelwit van hierdie projekte is om werkloosheid in die streek uit te roei en werklose mense indiensneembaar te maak deur hulle toe te rus met die nodige vaardighede, veral die jeug,” het Salmons gesê.
