Pretoria - The Department of Correctional Services says it has employed close to 3000 unemployed youth in the past year through learnership and internship programmes.
“This month 654 learners were absorbed into permanent positions. Last year, on 1 March, 943 learners were appointed into permanent positions,” the department said in a statement on Sunday.
It said in August 2012 a group of 1,012 learners completed the Correctional Services Learnership Programme, and 1,006 of them were appointed on contract pending their absorption into permanent positions.
At the start of March, 654 of them were appointed into permanent positions. The remainder will be retained on contract, and absorbed into permanent positions as positions become available.
Further, the department also has 1,005 interns on the Public Service Internship Programme aimed at providing graduates with experience to enhance their job prospects. Officials say inmates were also being rehabilitated to read, study and work.
“As a result, several inmates have been equipped with various skills including baking, carpentry and bricklaying. From 1 April this year, all inmates shall have a certificate in one hand and a skill in the other upon being released from correctional centres.
“Education is one of the top priorities of our government. The youth of our country must carry on with the task of nation building, and creating a prosperous South Africa. We are in need of dedicated, patriotic and action-oriented young intellectuals, who will contribute to building the kind of prosperous, and successful, society we envisage,” said Correctional Services Minister Sibusiso Ndebele.
Ndebele said as part of the Department of Correctional Services Learnership Programme, 1,597 youth have gone through theoretical, and practical, training for one year in different aspects of correctional services, first at Kroonstad and Zonderwater Training Colleges and then at the various correctional centres throughout the country.
He said the Learnership Programme, one of the pillars of the National Skills Development Strategy, was not only to generate skills but also to alleviate poverty and unemployment. – SAnews.gov.za
