Ikamva Youth: empowering the youth through education
Patrick Mashanda is the Programmes Manager at Ikamva Youth. As part of our series on Social Impact Superheroes, we got to interview him about his work to help students from disadvantaged communities to access tertiary education and work opportunities.
The state of the South African educational system is worrying. Numbers speak for themselves. According to a study published in 2013, “two out of ten learners drop out of school after Grade 3, four out of ten after Grade 9, six out of ten after Grade 10 and 7.3 after Grade 11. This means that less than a quarter of learners who begin Grade 1 complete Grade 12.” Unfortunately, the poor quality of the education system exacerbates the high unemployment rate. In 2019, 55,97% of the South African youth was unemployed. Through its holistic tutoring programmes, Ikamva Youth tries to tackle this double issue.
Created in 2003, Ikamva Youth makes sure students complete their education through the help of tutors and volunteers. “One of the things we are the proudest of is that we do not take learners that are already academically bright, explains Patrick Mashanda. We take any learner so that we can assist them to go through their Matric.” Besides the help they get to improve their marks, learners can also access career guidance and personal assessments to help them find post-school opportunities. “We run workshops for students to learn how to write a cv, how to go through an interview, how to behave in the workplace. We also invite tertiary institutions and international companies to speak about their programmes and their work.” This way, Ikamva Youth hopes to bring “a myriad of opportunities that young students can get channelled into.”
Job-ready
Ikamva Youth doesn’t only support learners to reach their full potential; it also gives volunteers -most of whom are university students- a first working experience. As Patrick points out, tertiary education focuses on theory and often leaves practice behind. Although students may graduate with first-class honours, some of them still lack essential skills to get a job. “I employ young people for my programmes, and I’m sometimes disappointed. They have a degree, but they can’t write well, or they don’t show on time”, admits Patrick. When recruited to work at Ikamva Youth, volunteers are trained and learn how to run a community project. “Volunteers are not just here to tutor. They motivate the learners and stand as role models, but they also take part in critical pieces of our programme. They help with the administrative side of things, and they participate in professional meetings with the staff.” Thanks to this opportunity, volunteers learn the hard and soft skills that are needed on the job market.
COVID-19 ready
Just like any other business in South Africa, Ikamva Youth had to adapt its services to the coronavirus pandemic. A psycho-social programme was created to support students through this unprecedented situation. “We also started online training video” and, to make sure that everyone could follow the sessions, “we even bought cellphones for over 200 learners and topped them with data.” The coronavirus has disrupted the way people work. It has broadened the digital gap and has demonstrated the inequalities in the job market. “Some of the jobs in the future won’t be office-based, but just online, so you need to know how this works to find opportunities. We showed students this is how the world is changing, so we all need to adapt.”
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Do you know someone who should be part of our Social Impact Superheroes series? Have you been inspired by an organisation’s mission to tackle social issues? Send their contact to margo@vollar.org
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