Youth Development

Empowering youth and young adults with skills and knowledge. ~ Tholulwazi Uzivikele

This Programme consists of two activities that are combined to encourage youth development, firstly by assiting young adults to adopt a positive attitude towards self development and secondly by assiting them to access vocational training, bursaries and other trainin opportunities.

Life Skills Course

The Life Skills courses are conducted as workshops over one month and are aimed at attitude adjustment and vision formulation for young adults and vulnerable adults. The Life Skills workshops empower participants in their search for values, beliefs, goal setting, social awareness and personal objectives in a cultural environment that is undergoing rapid change.

Why?
The vision formulation that is stimulated during this course will help the participants in their employability or further education.

Learners of the Life Skills Training at Tholulwazi Uzivikele Community Care Center, during a workshop on conflict resolution.

How?
The Life Skills workshops facilitated by Tholulwazi Uzivikele’s staff are conducted at Tholulwazi Uzivikele’s Community Care Centre, or at community venues throughout the area in which we work.  The workshop covers four weeks of course work.  Topics that are covered during these workshops are ‘Vision and goal setting’, ‘Relationships’, ‘Leadership’, ‘World view’, ‘Communication skills’, ‘HIV and AIDS’, and ‘Basic business skills’. The course is concluded with a certification ceremony for qualifying

The Life Skills course further encourages youth and the unemployed to seek spiritual guidance and development through youth groups at local churches. Tholulwazi Uzivikele further networks with bursary institutions and other partners to refer eligible candidates for further education and training.

Selected candidates from the Life Skills course are sent on advanced leadership courses, conducted by Tholulwazi Uzivikele’s partner, World Changers Academy, in Durban.  World Changers Academy aims to empower young people through life skills and leadership development programmes. The organisation targets high school students and young adults in the age group from 18 to 35 years.  World Changers Academy's leadership programs are full-time, residential courses at its leadership centre in Durban.

Graduated learners of the Life Skills Training

Vocational Training

When students of the Life Skills Course have finished the course and graduated, Tholulwazi Uzivikele encourages them to volunteer at local businesses through practical training at a partner organisation, mostly  businesses in the Manguzi area.     

Why?
In an area where formal training opportunities are limited and poverty is a significant burden, vocational training by volunteering service is an effective way for the unemployed to gain valuable skills and experience.  Having completed the Life Skills course, Tholulwazi Uzivikele assists students with placements at selected participating organisations.  

How?
Tholulwazi Uzivikele networks with organisations that can offer learning experiences. Tholulwazi Uzivikele aims to place students with local businesses by matching skills with the needs of businesses, to ensure a win-win situation. In this way volunteers may become eligible for vacancies as they arise, though future employment is not guaranteed and dependant on the volunteer’s own effort.