Practical solution to the systemic unemployment facing most young South Africans.
We had an interview with Babalwa
Bobo and Charnelle Pluim from Ava-Africa.
AVA, initiated by Action Appointments
Development Recruitment, an agency with almost 20 years’ experience placing
development professionals into South African NGOs, was set up to provide one
practical solution to the systemic unemployment facing most young South Africans.
They started in 2014 and reason why, they
actually started is because, they saw the need for people applying for jobs, but they don't have the necessary skills or experiences. They might
have degrees diplomas, but still lack the experience if they get
employed, hence AVA was born. Ava wanted to bridge that gap between not
having the necessary skills so that's why AVA comes in and they have different
programs that will help people to gain the necessary skills or experiences.
According to Charnelle : "the area we grew up
people don't have the necessary network so I think that also played
a huge role, because people don't have network they don't know about
opportunities.I think that's one of the biggest reasons why people are
unemployed. Also what we've noticed working in this environment is that people
don't have money to even go to an interview just something as simple as going
to an interview so that's where the problem comes in as I mentioned sometimes they
do have a necessary skill and have the diplomacy to have that, but they don't have degrees but they don't have the skills so that is also
why we have so much and also what I mentioned last week is that most of the
jobs they are looking for people just have matric. But you also need to have
a driving licence so that is something that we can really incorporate as part of your school curriculum as I think that's one of
the biggest things that's keeping us from being or getting employed."
AVA-Africa have different programs for different
people,they have a program called Year beyond where they place in schools .They work as a teacher assistant in the morning and then in the
afternoon they work as a tutor.They have another program that deals with
small businesses. Then khanyisa that's also schools program and they also assist teachers in
classes in the contest program will be there from the morning until the end
of the school day. And then they also assist with another program that's also numeracy and literacy, but that's more one-on-one time with a learner so it's not like khanyisa. Students actually have some more
one-on-one time with the learners but they're also helps with
self-development.
For more information, you can contact them on:
Website: www.avafrica.org.za
Email: Info@avaafrica.org.za
Tel: 021 761 3813
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