Vulindlel’ eJozi opens youth opportunities

If you are a young person living in and around the City of Johannesburg, you stand a chance to benefit from the City’s flagship programme, Vulindlel‘ eJozi.

Vulindlel‘ eJozi is a City of Johannesburg initiative that aims to respond to youth unemployment in the city by preparing young people to enter work, education and training opportunities.

According to the Mayor of Johannesburg, Parks Tau, candidates will go through a selection process to check whether they qualify.

“The programme will begin with screening, assessment and advisory services for all candidates.

“This will extend into foundation literacy, numeracy and digital literacy for all who participate, to raise their earning potential,” he said during his recent State of the City Address. 

Vulindlel’ eJozi is expected to open opportunities for 200 000 youth by 2016. “The programme will then identify and create opportunities for young people, based on their aptitudes and capabilities.

“These will include formal employment in companies of all sizes, public works programmes, national youth service programmes and micro-enterprise development channels, such as Jozi@work.”

The programme will also facilitate the placement of appropriate candidates in training and education programmes.

The city has also started a partnership with the University of Johannesburg to deploy young people from the city to different places as digital ambassadors.

“Over the coming months, as we accelerate the rollout of our free public Wi-Fi hotspots that we announced last year, we will deploy 3 000 young people, grouped as micro-companies, to provide digital literacy training. This is the bridge we are building across the digital divide,” he said.

Mayor Tau added that Braamfontein has been earmarked for the rollout of high-speed broadband access.

“We are in the process of blanketing Braamfontein with Wi-Fi that provides high-speed broadband access, parts of which are live right now.

“This goes beyond hotspot access at specific buildings and demonstrates how public Wi-Fi can work across a wide area. In this mecca of youthful activity Wi-Fi will become a showcase for how subsidised access to the Internet provides access to opportunity and education,” said the mayor.