Learn to Earn Helping Unemployed to Help Themselves

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WORDS Hiromi Shirahase

Founded in 1989, Learn to Earn (LtE) is a non-profit organisation which assists unemployed people not just socially and economically but emotionally and spiritually too. ‘As an organisation, we are open to anyone who is unemployed,’ says Aleks Jablonska, resource and partnership development at Learn to Earn. The programme takes a holistic approach in their training and has helped more than 13,000 people to find jobs and support their families.

The sewing course teaches students a variety of sewing skills and equips them with a portfolio of pieces. The main objective is to train up entrepreneurs who go on to establish their own business. Photo: courtesy of Learn to Earn

Unemployment is a huge problem in South Africa. The Statistics SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey indicates the number of people without a job is 27.1% – this falls short of the National Development Plan target of 14% by 2020. For Jablonska, in order to deal with unemployment, the gap between education and the business sector must be narrowed. This means that students and graduates will leave school with valuable, sought-after skills for the workplace.

LtE has discovered that, despite completing matric, many young people do not have the English and numeracy skills that are on par with the competitive working world. Subsequently, LtE focuses on developing the students’ practical skills so they can maximise on available job opportunities.

Rather than perpetuating the feeling of disempowerment resulting from lack of career options and skills, LtE offers trainees market-related skills courses to give learners the expertise they need. Courses they offer include:

Trainees from the Bake for Profit course combine practical skills with business theory. With a high rate of unemployment in South Africa, Learn to Earn strives to empower their learners, giving them a hand up, not a hand out. Photo: courtesy of Learn to Earn

• Bake for Profit
• Basic Computers
• Basic Business Skills
• Basic Handyman Skills
• Call Centre
• Catercare
• Graphic Design Bridging Course
• Ground UP Barista Academy
• Home Management
• Office Administration
• Point of Sale
• Sewing
• Woodwork

With skills development and training centres in Khayelitsha and Hermanus, LtE reports over 80% of students have secured jobs after graduation. Part of this success is down to their core philosophy ‘a hand up, not hand out’. LtE believe that by paying a small fee for their tuition, the students are more dedicated to learning and thoroughly invested in the outcome. ‘We keep student contribution low but a small contribution is quite important because it makes individuals more committed to the whole process because now they have contributed something from themselves,’ Jablonska explains.

Developing a holistic approach

As well as the hand up philosophy, LtE prides themselves on their holistic programme. ‘Unless we look at the whole person, where they are from and understand what kind of challenges they might be facing, economic development becomes quite shaky,’ says Jablonska. To develop unemployed people holistically, LtE integrates all training with Life Skills course.

The Graphic Design course is popular with young people. It bridges the gap between high school education and tertiary graphic design courses, ideally placing the candidate in good stead for the industry. Photo: courtesy of Learn to Earn

The Life Skills course covers a wide variety of job-orientated components ranging from CV Writing, Job Preparation and Work Ethics to Conflict Resolution, Substance Abuse and Domestic Violence among many others.

Through this course, trainees learn how to deal with problems they have in and out of the work place. For example, some of trainees come from impoverished areas where domestic violence happens on daily basis. ‘Does just teaching them how to use sewing machine stop domestic violence? It doesn’t. For sustainable impact, we need to look at the whole person and understand what kind of problems they are facing rather than just teaching skills,’ explains Jablonska. That’s why LtE takes a holistic approach.

Moreover, LtE is faith-based organisation so they provide an optional spiritual component called discipleship training. ‘When it comes to sharing stories of trainees and testimonies at graduation, many of them talked about being most impacted by the spiritual input that we provided,’ recalls Jablonska. ‘We believe that each person is created in God’s images and therefore has inherent value. Whether they are rich or poor regardless of what they’ve done or what they haven’t done, they have inherent dignity and need to be respected,’ she adds.

Through the combination of these courses, trainees can generate income with their skills and restore their dignity and self-esteem because they can look after their family and pay for their children’s education.

A cup of hope

Coffee culture is growing in South Africa. According to The Rise of Coffee Culture in Cape Town, the number of coffee roasters in South Africa has jumped from 20 to over 100 in ten years causing coffee to grow into a cultural thing Capetonians share. Comparing the reports Food and beverages industry, 2009 and 2012, the percentage of employed people in restaurants and coffee shops increased from 41% to 52%. This shows that the demand for baristas has been growing as much as the demand for coffee.

With the café culture on the rise, trainees at the Ground UP Academy learn everything that’s needed to make them top baristas and coffee connoisseurs. Photo: Hiromi Shirahase

With this in mind, LtE established Ground UP Academy in February 2015. This training includes coffee theory, commercial trading and entrepreneurial activities, which means graduates can work not only in coffee shops but also a corporate office environment. According to Jablonska, many graduates have found jobs in the hospitality industry, so she is confident that graduates who have proven themselves to be dedicated, hardworking and reliable will find jobs in their training field.

George, a trainee of Ground UP, is a perfect example of the dedicated worker Jablonska talks about. George is determined to start up another charity organisation similar to LtE. ‘My dream is to become a founder of an NGO. I realise there are some barriers to achieving this, but Ground UP has opened the door and also my eyes to the opportunities available so I know what the next steps should be.’

How can you make a difference?

‘We would like to say that we will not be needed in the future,’ says Jablonska, but according to Trading Economics, the unemployment rate is predicted to be 21% in 2020. Therefore, support for LtE is welcomed. The average cost for trainees is between R300 and R400 for the duration of the course (two to three months) but the real cost to LtE is about R12,000 per person. To subsidise the difference between student contribution and actual cost to LtE, they require external funding.

For trainee George, this opportunity and learning has changed his entire outlook. ‘I can see a bright future because at the end of training, I have some skills. I can go somewhere with pride and look for jobs. This is the beginning of my life goals and dreams,’ George expresses enthusiastically. There’s no doubt that LtE has the potential to change the lives of job-seekers, enabling more people to go forward with hope and purpose.

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