CoJ hopes to turn job seekers into job creators with new programme
MMC Lawrence Khoza said the programme would focus on training 500 residents from the seven regions in the City between the ages of 18 and 35, whose skill levels and workplace experiences are a disadvantage to them when they seek employment.
The job market is becoming increasingly more difficult to crack and for the younger job seekers, experience is often a problem – they cannot get a job without experience, but they cannot get experience without a job.
The MMC for Economic Development, Lawrence Khoza, hoped to fight unemployment and turn job seekers into job creators when he visited Cosmo City on Tuesday, June 8, to launch the Region C Youth Cooperative Development Programme.
This programme will see the Department of Economic Development assist budding entrepreneurs with the training they need to start their own business. After seeing the most common reasons start-ups fail, the programme will be centred around preventing the common causes of business failures.
“The programme empowers youth-owned cooperatives with compliance regulations, in-depth training, market access through cooperative development, and links them with procurement opportunities available within the City,” explained the MMC.
He said the programme would focus on training 500 residents from the seven regions in the City between the ages of 18 and 35, whose skill levels and workplace experiences are a disadvantage to them when they seek employment. “The exclusion of the youth from the labour market, the lack of opportunities, along with the devastating effects of Covid-19 on the economy have led to the concerted efforts of the City to focus its support to small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) and youth cooperatives; and to encourage co-production and localisation as a catalyst for economic revitalisation,” said Khoza.
By investing in aspiring entrepreneurs, and thereby helping the younger generations to contribute positively to the economy, the City hopes to turn one of its greatest challenges into an asset. The MMC said the City of Joburg would continue to fight unemployment, and he ured young people, especially young women and people with disabilities from throughout Johannesburg to apply for the programme online or obtain application forms from the various ward councillors’ offices within each region of the City.
You can register online for the Youth Cooperative Development Programme here.
Alternatively, the forms can be downloaded by clicking here.
