Johannesburg - The Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority (CHIETA) has signed a R40 million collaborative agreement with the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) to establish a “Youth in Chemicals” programme to train young artisans.
Under the agreement, the NYDA has invested R10 million while CHIETA has committed R30 million to train the youth as artisans and entrepreneurs of the future.
The two organisations aim to support 2 000 artisans to become entrepreneurs over the next two years. The programme is expected to start in October.
CHIETA CEO, Yershen Pillay, said the new programme was a fusion of artisanship and entrepreneurship and stated that it was designed to train young artisans to be employers of youth and not simply employees.
“We don’t want to train artisans to be job seekers, we want to train artisans to be job creators. Our ‘Youth in Chemicals’ programme will train the youth to be welders and boiler makers while at the same time providing essential entrepreneurial skills to start their own small businesses,” Pillay said.
CHIETA said the combination of artisan training with entrepreneurship training is anticipated to lead to more jobs being created for the youth in the country.
According to the NYDA CEO Waseem Carrim, the Development Agency was committed to address the plight of youth through more programmes designed for job creation and enterprise development.
“This innovative programme between the NYDA and CHIETA, to combine artisan development with small business development, will certainly close the skills gap and create more jobs for the youth, by the youth,” he said.
CHIETA said the organisations in the chemical industries will be able to apply for discretionary grants to train more coded welders, refractory masons, electricians, and boiler makers. This includes an entrepreneurial skills training element to ensure that these artisans are adequately equipped to start their businesses.
kamogelo.moichela@inl.co.za
Education