Local youth boosted with IT skills

BURGERSFORT

Ten local youths of Tubatse have graduated with an NQF level 2
qualification in IT technical support and will progress to level 4 & 5 over the next two years. On September 11, Dlama Smart Skills (facilitators) and Engen Vivo Energy celebrated the youth with an event held at Rufaro Lodge.

The qualification is part of the Engen Global Citizens Programme and was conducted within a period of 12 months.

This programme is a structured skills development initiative aimed at preparing the youth for careers in information technology. Participants were local matriculants in Tubatse who had zero skills in ICT.

One of the participants, Motlatso Makofane, praised both Dlama and Engen for running the initiative, and said the programme will benefit them in the job market. “We are now better positioned to pursue meaningful employment. We arrived clueless but through this training we are now computer experts. We urge both organisations to continue this partnership in order to uplift the youth.”
In concluding the event, the graduates presented some of the programmes they had learnt through the course, and dismantled and rebuilt a computer. They demonstrated the setting up of an office that had internet, printers, scanners and related equipment.

Olwethu Mdabula, Engen’s CSI manager, congratulated the Burgersfort graduates: “Engen remains steadfast in its belief that digital literacy is a gateway to empowerment. We are proud to walk alongside our communities as they build resilience and the capacity to thrive in an evolving world.”

This programme supports UN Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality education, and complements Engen’s other education-focused initiatives such as the Engen Maths and Science Schools, which have provided free STEM supplementary classes to thousands of grade 10 to 12 learners nationwide for the past 34 years.