Thousands of unemployed youth will benefit from a newly-launched government training scheme, Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda said on Tuesday. He was speaking at the official launch of the scheme, known as e-Cadre, in Rustenburg in North West. The programme was a multi-pronged approach offering information and communications technology (ICT) skills training and life orientation to young people, said Nyanda. About 350 information technology graduates have been recruited since the programme was identified as a flagship of the communications department in 2007.
The programme, conducted in partnership with the National Youth Service and 15 Further Education and Training (FET) colleges, has three phases, formal training, service deployment and an exit strategy. The first phase of the programme was concluded last year with the training of 765 young matriculants in the International Computers Drivers Licence through the 15 FET colleges. This figure covered the tuition and assessment fees for the training, life orientation module, stipend and travelling and accommodation fees. The process of recruiting participants takes into consideration gender and disability. Young people from both rural and urban areas are welcome.
