Our Stories

Ready to upskill

Unlocking new opportunities with skills and learning

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When our youth are ready to gain expertise, we here to help bring their possibility to life through targeted upskilling initiatives that equip them with the technical, vocational, social and digital skills they need to find employment and thrive.

Sandisiwe – The mom who remade her world

Together with Business Processing Enabling South Africa (BPESA) and Harambee, a cross skilling initiative was designed and implemented to improve young people’s employment opportunities by matching existing jobs to available skills through SAYouth.mobi. Our Absa clients have been part of the solution, building bridges to employment for youth that are laid off in shrinking sectors, and moving them into high demand business areas such as global business services (GBS).

This is the true story of Sandisiwe, a young mother of two children. She lost her job in the hospitality and tourism sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. But that all changed...

How Sharon became a giant

Sharon cultivated her love of the land from her mother. She would help to tend their small garden, selling the produce they grew to support their family. And she experienced first-hand the plight of pests and diseases on their crops – and their livelihood.

She dreamed of studying an agricultural degree with the aim to help small and emerging farmers improve their productivity, to create job opportunities, and ultimately to “free households from poverty”.

But while things did not always go as planned, Sharon never gave up on her dreams. This is her story.

Naseemah, the tech whizz girl

Advances in artificial intelligence, robotics and other emerging technologies are happening in ever-shorter cycles, changing the nature of the jobs and the skills needed to do them. By collaborating with WeThinkCode, we can give young people an effective platform to build digital skills that will open pathways for them into the digital economy.

Naseemah is one of these young people. Yet technology was never something she was interested in until a friend recommended WeThinkCode and convinced her to study tech as a great way to start her career. And then she fell in love with mobile app development when she saw how technology could better people’s lives.

 

Kea, the woman who engineering herself a new future

In collaboration with the National Business Initiative (NBI) in South Africa, we funded 15 students in 2022 at a local Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) college to be enrolled in a pilot Installation, Repair and Maintenance (IRM) General Repairer Programme. The Programme aimed to equip these young students to access entry general maintenance roles within the infrastructure maintenance industry. Two years later, these students graduated successfully. And now, the programme has been registered and can be offered at all TVET colleges and private providers.

Kea was one of the first graduates. Inspired by her aunt’s construction company, coupled with her love of drawing, Kea wanted to become a Civil Engineer one day. Her path led her to study drafting and then expand into engineering. But when money became tight and she couldn’t continue her studies, the General Repairer Programme taught her new skills to expand her scope and thrive in an industry not necessarily common place for a woman.

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