Beginning of an Opportunity

Sharol Mgwevu, one of the nine youths that received a three-month learnership at Bestmed, who is also a qualified electrical engineer, could not contain her excitement to learn something new.

 

"Like many youths in our country, I completed my matric, despite the challenges of being raised by a single mother and my grandmother. When growing up, I knew that I wanted to do something that would make a difference to the world. I wanted follow a career, which was historically perceived to be a man’s world and challenge the common perception that women couldn’t do it. This is what drove me to study Electrical Construction and Electrical Engineering,” says Mgwevu.

 

Unemployment exists not only because youth is unskilled but because opportunities are inadequate. Mgwevu looked for an opportunity everywhere possible to pursue her career in her chosen field, but to no avail.

 

As a determined young girl, she ended up at Bestmed’s offices assisting with administration duties and when she heard of the EmpowerForce Empowerment Programme, she saw the light at the end of the tunnel. "I saw this as a new challenge, so I took the chance. I am excited to try something different as I need to provide for myself and my family. This opportunity will open doors for me and I am grateful to Bestmed and Empowerforce for helping me and my team members see things differently,” added Mgwevu.

 

Speaking at the certification ceremony, Michelle Richard, EmpowerForce’s Project Facilitator, said that her short term goal is to create at least 200 jobs by June 2014. "Bestmed and a few corporates have been very instrumental in assisting EmpowerForce give back to communities. We believe that through initiatives like this, the mammoth task of curbing unemployment in the country will be broken down. This exercise is just the beginning of an opportunity as every candidate that we place in a corporate ends up as a permanent employee,” said Richards.

 

"Our country’s economic growth has been hampered by rising youth unemployment and it is everyone’s responsibility to take part and curb this issue. When we got the opportunity to partner with Empowerforce to assist our youth, we knew this was the step we needed to take to help create better opportunities for our youth,” said Alan Fritz, Bestmed’s Executive Head – Marketing, Sales & Distribution.

 

The 3-month pilot was initiated in order to gauge if it would be feasible to conduct a project of this nature on a long-term basis. The selected 10 candidates went through a two week training course, which commenced on Monday 21st October 2013 and on Wednesday 30th October Bestmed and Empowerforce hosted a certification ceremony for these successful candidates.

"We are very happy about the pilot empowerment project that we initiated with Bestmed. Our focus is to provide youth with the necessary skills they need in order to go out there and provide for themselves. The young people we selected for this pilot programme are all from different backgrounds but all of them were facing unemployment. We are proud of them for succeeding in taking charge of their lives. I would like to thank Bestmed and other people involved for making this possible,” says Michelle Richards, Empowerforce Project Facilitator.

 

In conclusion Fritz stated that these types of projects are very crucial in contributing to job creation for the youth. "If this project with Bestmed is a success, we will do a continuous intake of youth, train them and place them,” said Fritz.