Teaching skills to the youth of Rand West and beyond

Despite being funded by one entity, the Ndimase Development Centre, an NGO in Middelvlei is determined to empower youth across Rand West City.

Zanele Dumakude, who founded the centre in 2007, said their sole mission is to help people who are not enticed by conventional jobs. They want to give vocational training to those who want to augment their handcraft skills.

“We are accredited with different SETAs (Sector Education and Training Authorities), but the Fibre Processing and Manufacturing (FP&M) SETA is the only one that is funding us at the moment,” Zanele said.

In the past, they have managed to help over 1 000 youth through learnership programmes, some of whom have been hired by private companies, while some joined the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller (GEP), and are getting a stipend to sustain their lives.

“We realised that there were a lot of young people who completed their Grade 12, but were not given enough choices to go on and practice what they wanted to do. It is not because they could not afford university or were not academically gifted, but because they wanted to use their hands,” she said.

Zanele said they offer sewing, furniture making, garment production, poultry farming, culinary skills, and computer training, among others.

“We would like to thank FP&M SETA because they have done such a sterling job in making sure that they are funding us and giving a stipend to our trainees.”

She added that every year they get learnerships that are sponsored by SETA.

“We are grateful that they have committed themselves to the programme, especially making sure that they give our trainees a stipend and certificates when the complete their learnerships.

“Not only are the trainees trained for a job, but they are also taught how to behave professionally. We are extremely proud to help in the fight to try and eliminate poverty, and are proud to help the entrepreneurs of tomorrow,” Zanele said.