Students blossom during Job Readiness Programme

Our fourth Job Readiness course of 2016 was has been successfully completed. Feedback from the students has been very positive and quite a few lofty goals have been set for the future.

Lionel Appies plans to improve his office skills by enrolling in the Office Basics course. Loren-Lee Beukes would like to become a nurse in the future and she plans to enrol in the next available Frail Care course.

Imelda Cleaphas and Lee-Ann Hoorn plan on getting matric and improving their matric results. Imelda is in the process of enrolling with the DoE to write her exams next year and Lee-Ann is going to enrol at an FET college.

It was heartening to see how the group of shy students blossomed during the course. According to Imelda she learnt a lot about herself as well. “The sessions on Life Skills and Spiritual Development taught me I am a work in progress. I realised that I need to be more thoughtful when I deal with people, but that I am quite good at resolving conflicts.”

According to Leandre Opperman you can learn a lot at FCD that you don’t know. “You learn about self-esteem, how to work with customers, PC skills and a whole lot more. I would recommend FCD to young and old – it really helped me a lot!”

Ziyanda Kwinana learnt that we are all unique and plans to find a job as a cashier. “When I started the course I was shy and unsure of myself, but now I have more confidence and know how to communicate with people.” She also plans to use water more wisely and to recycle in future.

An important lesson learnt by Suzette van Wyk was that budgeting is a very important part of life if you don’t want to waste money. Nocedo Nqoko and Nomakwindla Duna say they learnt that customer service was very important and that one should always be respectful, helpful and patient. Thabelo Makapa learnt that if one makes a mistake, you should apologise.

After completing the course, Jason Hoffman believes that “We should be more involved in our different communities and try to make a difference. I believe it starts with yourself and the rest will follow. We should get more people involved but first there must be a plan.”

“I have learnt to overcome stress and to be open and honest with people,” says Marilyn Rhodes.

Several  of these students will be going on to be interviewed for the Red Cap Foundation’s Jumpstart Programme, enabling them to participate in a 6-day Retail work experience training at Mr Price. The remainder of the class will participate at job shadows at various Pick ‘n Pay Stores or in merchandising at the Spar through Mont Eagle Merchandising Services.

We look forward to hearing how they find life in the ‘real world’.

The Job Readiness programme consists of six modules plus the 6 days of work experience. The modules include Life Skills, Spiritual Development, Customer Service, Basic Maths for Sales, Basic Computer Use and Point-of-sale Systems.