About 55% of youth within our surrounding communities are unemployed and struggle to find employment and further their studies. This leads to young people giving up hope for a brighter future and are absorbed within the social ills that exist in communities, such as gangsterism and substance abuse.
As Africa becomes more driven by services and less dependent on commodities, the continent must foster digital skills as part of transitioning its population from low-skill and low-pay jobs to high-skill and high-pay jobs. Citizens need to educate and equip themselves with new skills. Due to the lack of exposure of cutting edge technology and digital skills many youth lacks social innovation.
In 2018, Genesis CITI applied towards the Call for Proposals issued by Sage Foundation. Successfully, in 2019, the bid was awarded to train youth in futuristic skills, such as 3D Printing, Content Creation and Mobile App Development and Robotics. Entrepreneurship Training were included, to unlock Social Innovation amongst youth.
Elsies River has played a pivotal role within the apartheid struggle in ensuring that South Africa migrates to a new landscape of social upliftment and economic freedom. Many stalwarts that has participated in the struggle has contributed tremendously and ought to be acknowledged and share their stories for the next generation. Today, we are continuing in the struggle for better education and economic opportunities.
The main objective is to create, develop and expand new knowledge and skills for the 4th Industrial Revolution, built upon new digital technologies which democratize access to information, new knowledge and generate impacts that were unimaginable in the past.
Today’s youth is called GenTech, and for good reason. Technology has become a part and parcel of almost everyone’s lives, especially the youth’s. Messaging applications, social media, broadcasting systems- the technical world is crucial to our knowledge of people around us. It has also made our life easier- we can pay bills and shop online, create and forward official data, and secure our knowledge for the future generations. Youth in disadvantaged communities being exposed to technology, presents CHANGE and TRANSFORMATION.
As the world is moving towards the 4thIndustrial Revolution, South African youth needs to know the potential of technology to advance their career paths. The 4IR Skills Training, funded by Sage Foundation, provided Genesis CITI the opportunity to empower unemployed with 3D Printing, Mobile App Development and Content Creation. As these youth become leaders within the 4IR Skills being trained, simultaneously innovation and creativity were unlocked during the project. Inclusive with the training, students had to work on real-life projects to gain experiential learning.
The 3D Printing Course provided students with the necessary skill-set required to model their 3D designs in a program, called BLENDER and export it to a 3D printer to print.
The Mobile App Development training course covers the basic fundamentals of building apps through an online platform (Appshed), which includes technologies such as JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
The Robotics & Appshed training provided students with the necessary knowledge and skill-set that will enable them to build a robotic car from scratch and programme an app on the Appshed platform that will control the robotic car.
The Digital Content Creation training course provided students with the necessary knowledge, understanding and skills of the essential video editing tools in order to modify and manipulate digital content, e.g. videos, pictures, clips, etc. Candidates will make use of the Adobe Premiere Pro application in order to gain such knowledge and skills and demonstrate their ability to create videos and content online.
50 unemployed youth were empowered with tech skills that will position them to express talent online through cloud platforms! It is clear that the findings presented, indicates that innovation can be unlocked through exposure and empowerment of technology.
The 4IR Skills for Youth project offered to the youth, allowed them to reflect about society against the opportunity obtained. The paradox allowed them to reflect within themselves to see a better future, provided that opportunities are granted to them. Therefore, all students partnered to build a solution for young girls who fall pregnant during their adolescent years. The 3D printing team, designed objects that focused on early childhood development and health sector. The Content Creation Team compiled an interview video on speaking to pregnant ladies regarding early pregnancy. Also, the Mobile App Team, designed a mobile app in educating young ladies about teenage pregnancy.
On the 12th December 2019, a graduation were held in celebrating the success of the skills development project and project incubation that followed.
The exposure to cutting edge technology and its impact unlock potential, which must be further incubated to ensure that youth reaches their entrepreneurial / employment goals. The project is a result of training completed with students, but our work does not end here. There is an imperative to continue 4IR Skills Training, since unemployment is still rising, and youth needs to resort to an entrepreneurial tech skill to generate income. Our vision is that this project will inspire ongoing collaboration, and that such opportunities will lead to a measurable and sustainable difference in the economic vitality and resilience of the unemployed youth in South Africa.
Student Projects of Digital Content Creation
Video created by students – 1) Teenage Pregnancy 2) Cyber Bullying
Conclusion and the Way Forward by Llewellyn Scholtz – Report
As the world is moving towards the 4thIndustrial Revolution, South African youth needs to know the potential of technology to advance their career paths. The 4IR Skills Training, funded by Sage Foundation, provided Genesis CITI the opportunity to empower unemployed with 3D Printing, Mobile App Development and Content Creation. As these youth become leaders within the 4IR Skills being trained, simultaneously innovation and creativity were unlocked during the project. Inclusive with the training, students had to work on real-life projects to gain experiential learning. It is clear that the findings presented, indicates that innovation can be unlocked through exposure and empowerment of technology. Many youths in disadvantaged communities across the Cape Flats possess the potential to become creative and innovative, whilst facing daily gang violence and domestic abuse. The 4IR training offered to the youth, allowed them to reflect about society against the opportunity obtained. The paradox allowed them to reflect within themselves to see a better future, provided that opportunities are granted to them. The exposure to cutting edge technology and its impact unlock potential, which must be further incubated to ensure that youth reaches their entrepreneurial / employment goals. Read Report Here
