July 2015

Jozi to give youth springboard

Written by Albert Pule

If you are a young person residing in the vicinity of the City of Johannesburg, you stand a chance to benefit from the city’s flagship programme called Vulindlel‘eJozi.

Vulindlel‘ eJozi is a City of Johannesburg’s initiative responding to the high level of youth unemployment in the city and is expected to prepare young people to enter work, education and training opportunities.

According to the Mayor of Johannesburg Parks Tau, candidates will go through a selection process to be assessed if they qualify. “This programme will begin with screening, assessment and advisory services for all the candidates.

“This will extend into foundation literacy, numeracy and digital literacy for all who participate to raise their earning potential,” he said during his recent State of the City Address.  

Vulindlela eJozi is expected to break down barriers to opportunities for 200 000 youth by 2016. “The programme will then identify and create opportunities for young people based on their aptitudes and capabilities.

“These will include formal employment in companies of all sizes, public works programmes, national youth service programmes and micro-enterprise development channels such as Jozi@work.”

The programme will also facilitate the placement of appropriate candidates in training and education programmes.

The city has also started a partnership with the University of Johannesburg where young people from the city will be deployed in different places as digital ambassadors.

“Under a new partnership with the University of Johannesburg, groups of young people will also have access to our Digital Ambassadors programme.

“Over the coming months, as we accelerate the rollout of our free public Wi-Fi hotspots announced last year, we will also deploy 3 000 young people, grouped as micro-companies, to provide digital literacy training. This is the bridge we are building across the digital divide,” he said.

Mayor Tau added that Braamfontein has been earmarked for roll-out of high speed broadband access. “We are in the process of blanketing Braamfontein with Wi-Fi that provides high speed broadband access, parts of which are live right now.

“This goes beyond hotspot access at specific buildings and demonstrates how public Wi-Fi can work across a wide area. In this mecca of youthful activity, the Wi-Fi mesh will become a showcase for how subsidised access to Internet means access to opportunity and education.”

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