The Independent Police Investigating Directorate (IPID) and the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) have launched their first-ever learnership programme.
Sixty-six young people will receive training in various fields within IPID.
They will be placed in IPID offices in all nine provinces and also at the IPID head office in Pretoria.
The programme is aimed at providing employment opportunities for young people and exposing them to the workplace. It will lead to upskilling of young people.
It is intended to ensure mentoring and coaching by experienced employees and ultimately acquire their NCV Level 4.
IPID executive director Jennifer Ntlatseng says, “The key focus areas of the strategy are to improve interdepartmental collaboration on youth development strategy. Formalise graduate recruitment scheme for safety and security, to attract highly skilled people. Youth skills development support youth absorption into employment, particularly in law enforcement agencies. IPID has to date collaborated with NYDA, SASETA and Presidency on implementation of youth development strategy in the department.”
Deputy Police Minister Cassel Mathale says these programmes are intended to address unemployment among the youth. Mathale says in the first quarter of 2020 there were millions of young people aged between 15 and 34 years who were unemployed.
He says this programme is aimed at addressing that scourge.
“These young people account for 63% of the total number of unemployed persons in the country. Government is this day doing its bit to address this challenge that threatened the prospective future for millions of the country’s youth. This is one such project where we will see work opportunities created for 66 unemployed young who will participate in a structured workplace experiential programme,” says Mathale.
The National Youth Development Agency CEO, Waseem Carrim says this programme is part of a larger government employment stimulus. Carrim says NYDA provides support to programmes aimed at empowering young people in the country.
The new group will be placed in administration where they will capture dockets into the system. They will also work at IPID’s toll-free centres to record complaints from citizens.
