Graham & Nicola’s Update July 2008

The Oasis Training Academy is situated in Cosmo City on the North West outskirts of Johannesburg. Cosmo City is a new government initiative to build an integrated community, both economic and racial. Thousands of houses, ranging from small government houses to larger private housing, have been built and thousands more are planned. People are being moved from shacks in the nearby informal settlements into the government houses. Even so the informal settlements continue to grow and many thousands still live in shacks. South Africans move from the rural areas to find work, and many refugees, both political and economic, are arriving from neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe. It is difficult for the police to maintain law and order in these settlements, as I am sure that you will have heard during the recent xenophobic violence. Oasis has a vision to bring the love of God into the heart of the community and is working to encourage and build community relations in Cosmo City, while still reaching out to those in the surrounding informal settlements.

 

After much research and running a pilot project in 2007, Graham and Nicola have developed a programme to help school leavers to find sustainable employment. It is an unfortunate fact that the education that these young people have received is inferior to those in the mainstream of society and their chances of accessing and obtaining good jobs are low. Only a few manage to break out of the poverty trap, and many soon lose hope and easily turn to drugs and crime. Unemployment in the informal settlements is over 50%, and the majority of those in employment are domestic workers, unskilled labourers or work in the lowest paid jobs in the retail industry.

 

The Skills For Life bridging programme commenced in January 2008 with 40 students from four of the poorest schools in the area. Many of the students have only one parent or even none caring for them, live in shacks which are constructed of corrugated iron and scraps of plastic or wood and survive on the occasional earnings of a relative. We want these young people to know that they are special and loved by God, so we are demonstrating that love to them while equipping them with the practical skills they need to find sustainable employment. When asked what they want in life most of them say they want to get married, live in a house and have sufficient income to support a family.

The programme combines ICT training with English, life skills and career guidance. The objective is to prepare the students for life beyond school and help them choose and find the options available to them for further training or employment. The students also partake in a community service programme with children from local primary schools, running an after school homework club and an afternoon of sports activities. We also try and arrange part time work for them to provide a small income and to gain valuable work experience.

 

The ICT element of the programme is an established course called Net2Work which Oasis offers globally to many people from poor or underprivileged backgrounds who are struggling to provide for their needs and the needs of their families. The Oasis Net2Work programme is a formal computer training course that provides successful students with certification from the “Cambridge Institute of Technology (INTEC)”.

 

Graham and Nicola have arranged for Oasis to partner with experienced local individuals and organisations to deliver the other subjects in the course. A key component is called ‘Steps to Excellence’ which builds the students’ self esteem, helps them to realise their skills and abilities, and teaches planning, goal setting and leadership skills. Another key component is English. Although all the students have been taught English as a second language, their verbal and written skills are still poor. With additional tuition and using English as the training language we have seen a marked improvement in their abilities. We also offer careers guidance. Our students are not university material, but they still have many options to choose from and there is a dire shortage of vocational skills in the country. Money and time management, communication skills and looking for work are other subjects that we teach. We also recognise the importance of the spiritual dimension in our lives and so we make time to explore the character of Jesus Christ.  

 

Our training programme is part time for six months, followed by six months of support where the students are offered a personal mentor and are encouraged to drop in to our centre to talk with us and use the internet and email, while we help them take steps to move forward in their search for employment. We take a new intake of forty students each six months, so there is an ongoing rolling programme.

 

Of the first forty students who have completed the training programme at the end of June, we have already arranged learnerships for eleven of them. This is a government initiative where companies are encouraged to provide on the job training for a year, a bit like an apprenticeship, so the students get work experience and a recognised certificate. We consider this to be an excellent opportunity and a success for our programme as the students faced stiff competition to obtain the posts. Two more of our students have got permanent full time jobs with good prospects.