Having a qualification increases your chances of landing your perfect job. Many organizations offer learnerships, apprenticeships, internships, and other skills development programs throughout the year. These programs provide experience and skills that will help you in your chosen career.
Check out some of the most recommended skills development programs offered in Cape Town below!
National Youth Service Program
The Department of Transport and Public Works in the Western Cape offers the National Youth Service (NYS) Program, a skills development program to unemployed youth in the technical trade industry with no work experience and those in the technical industry with work experience but no trade certification. The Program aims to create an enabling environment for participants to develop their skills, provide training and management support to participants, assess performance, and be inclusive of all gender or geographical locations and be liked to community service, internships and career-oriented studies.
The NYS Program is accredited within the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and linked to the National Strategy for Economic Growth which places special emphasis on rural development projects. It is also linked to financial support for education which promotes a common sense of nationhood, reconstruction and development.
The NYS Program aims to impart skills, understanding and an aspiration for working in the built environment. The construction trade training needs have therefore been identified through the following areas:
- Air-conditioning and refrigeration
- Construction masonry and plastering
- Electrical wiring
- Construction plumbing
- Construction tiling
- Construction painting
- Construction carpentry
- Road works
- Construction floor covering
- Construction welding
- Construction plant operator
The skills program will include both theory and simulated training through accredited training service providers. Participants with work-based learning through their accredited unit standards obtained during institutional training are assisted to enhance workplace experiential training. The Program will also provide training n accordance with the relevant NQF level under the auspices of the relevant Sector Education & Training Authority (SETA). The NYS Program will assist participants to exit into viable, suitable economic opportunities.
Click here for further information.
SANCCOB Internships
The South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) is a registered non-profit organization whose primary objective is to reverse the decline of seabird populations through the rescue, rehabilitation and release of ill, injured, abandoned and oiled seabirds, especially endangered species like the African penguin.
The organization works closely with colony managers to identify birds in need of care in the wild and bring them to one of SANCCOB’s two centers in South Africa: Cape Town (Western Cape) and Port Elizabeth (Eastern Cape).
SANCCOB offers 3 and 6 month internships for adults. SANCCOB internships are structured, mentored training programs with a strong focus on skills development suitable for returning volunteers, university students, graduates, post graduates, employees and volunteers in the fields of animal science, husbandry, care and welfare related fields. Previous experience working with birds is desirable though not essential.
Volunteers who have completed SANCCOB’s international volunteer program are eligible for a 50% discount on all the internship programs.
Upon acceptance into the program, all interns are required to pay a refundable R 2,000 fee to secure their place. This is refunded in South African Rands after successful completion of the program.
To apply for one of the following internships, download the application form and send it, along with your curriculum vitae and motivational letter, via e-mail to the volunteer coordinator at volunteers@sanccob.co.za.
- Seabird Rehabilitation
This course has been developed to prepare participants for a career in bird rehabilitation and conservation. Interns have the opportunity to work with a variety of seabirds. The duration of this internship is 3 to 6 months.
Depending on the length of your internship, you will learn intermediate to advanced hands-on skills seabird rehabilitation techniques as well as be introduced to other areas such as basic laboratory work, center management, education and training of others.
- Penguin Nursery Internship
The Penguin Nursery internship is focused on caring for bigger chicks, usually weighing 1.5kg or more. These chicks remain in the nursery until they are ready to move to the swimming rehabilitation pens.
- Seabird Chick Rearing Internship
The Chick Rearing Internship is focused on egg management and rearing chicks from hatchling to 1.5kg. The course will equip you with seabird breeding and chick husbandry skills needed for a career in captive breeding or seabird chick rearing and conservation.
For more details, visit https://sanccob.co.za/internships/.
Automotive Authority Apprenticeships
Since its inception in 1930, Automotive Authority (AA) has played a vital advocacy role for South African road users. AA engages publicly on, and become involved in, a range of projects and topics relevant to the automobile and transport industry at large.
AA promotes road safety – in particular, pedestrian road safety – through its Walk Safe and Visibility campaigns. As advocates for road users, AA has been vocal on the issue of rising fuel costs in South Africa. Furthermore, in the absence of regulation in the towing industry, AA has introduced a service charter to bring about transformation in the sector in the interest of road users.
AA offers accredited industry relevant training at its colleges in Gauteng and the Western Cape.
The AA Technical College addresses the AA industry’s skill shortage by offering the following MerSETA accredited apprenticeships. The AA Technical College has also been accredited by QCTO.
- Automotive Electrician
- Diesel Mechanic
- Diesel Fitter (offered in Johannesburg only)
- Diesel Fuel Injection Technician (offered in Johannesburg only)
- Motor Mechanic
Though the apprenticeship program forms the core of the College, AA also offers:
- General vehicle-related courses to the public
- Specialized soft skill courses
- Technical short courses for artisans who want to keep abreast of new technologies and up-skill themselves
AA currently has two accredited training facilities, which accommodate a maximum of 100 learners at AA’s Johannesburg branch and 20 learners at AA’s Cape Town branch per day across AA’s service offering.
Visit the AA Apprenticeships and Learnerships web page for more information.
ETDP SETA Learnerships
The Education, Training and Development Practices Sector Education and Training Authority (ETDP SETA) was established in March 2000 following the promulgation of the Skills Development Act, Act 97 of 1998 (as amended), and was re-established in April 2010. One of its mandates is to implement learning programs including learnerships, apprenticeships, skills programs and any other prescribed learning programs which include a structured work experience component.
As part of the ETDP SETA’s strategic plan and in its commitment to respond to the skills needs of its constituencies, the ETDP SETA is implementing the learnerships outlined below in all provinces.
- Further Education and Training Certificate (FETC) in ECD Learnerships
Early Childhood Development (ECD) is the first and essential step that children need to enable them to succeed in their schooling years. It is a priority area in South Africa in order to improve the quality of basic education and learner achievement.
Consequently, the ETDP SETA places a huge emphasis on ECD programs to help improve children’s capacity to develop and learn for better long term prospects. In order to meet ECD needs, the ETDP SETA is implementing the FETC in ECD Practice NQF Level 4 and the in ECD Practice NQF Level 5 for practitioners in all nine provinces.
The ECD NQF Level 5, a two-year program with 240 credits is aimed not only at increasing employment prospects for the unemployed but also at producing suitably qualified ECD practitioners with a recognized qualification.
- Development Practice Learnership
The Development Practice Learnership is a critical access learnership in the ETD field. Practitioners with this qualification are able to provide professional support directly to individuals and communities, thus empowering such individuals and communities to achieve specific outcomes. The qualification also enables practitioners to provide short learning programs to community groups and to assist in assessing the community groups’ learning or development.
The learnership is directed at both adults and youth (employed and unemployed) with sufficient experience in general community development work and the development practice field, especially those employed as auxiliary social workers, community development workers, youth workers and NGO and CBO field activists.
- Youth Development Practice Learnership
The Development Practice is closely linked with the Youth Development Practice NQF Level 5, which target young people to become youth work practitioners. It enables practitioners to facilitate enabling processes for youth development work within public and private contexts. It also empowers young people with skills to work with community based projects. Youth development work is a proactive social mechanism for managing change in the economy and society.
- National Diploma in Environment Studies Learnership
This National Diploma in Environment Studies NQF Level 5 Learnership will prepare learners to function independently as entry-level environmental education practitioners. It will apply in particular to unqualified environmental education practitioners working in environmental education centers (e.g. volunteers, interns and part-time guides), and to people employed primarily in fields other than education, but who may develop an environmental education role in the workplace, e.g. field rangers, outreach officers, interpretative officers.
The learners qualified at this level will make a meaningful contribution to environmental change through an educational response to environmental issues and risks in a range of contexts and workplaces. They may also be able to function as teachers’ aides of environmental education specialists in formal education settings like schools.
Click here to learn more about ETDP SETA Learnerships.