The City of Johannesburg Department of Economic Development (DED) has successfully completed a Skills Development Programme for the National Certificate: Construction in Roadworks and Maintenance. The graduation ceremony will be held on the 26 June 2025 at the South West TVET college (SWGC) Molapo, Soweto
This initiative enrolled 368 unemployed youth for a 12-month training period through a partnership with South West TVET College, located in Molapo, Soweto. The programme commenced in the 2023/2024 financial year and was subsequently extended to enable learners to accrue additional credits in compliance with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) standards.
The training primarily targeted unemployed youth from Regions D and G, which have the highest unemployment rates among all administrative regions within the city.
The National Certificate: Construction in Roadworks and Maintenance (NQF Level 2) is a unit-standard based skills programme designed to equip learners with essential competencies relevant to the construction sector.
Certain unit standards within this qualification enable learners to develop Team Leader competencies. It balances theoretical knowledge with practical application, thereby eliminating barriers related to formal education for achieving the qualification.
In addition to technical skills, the programme incorporates foundational components such as Communication, Basic Mathematical Literacy, and Language proficiency. It also allows for the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), thereby accommodating learners’ diverse educational backgrounds.
Programme Highlights:
· Participants: 368 unemployed youth (324 aged 35 or below), comprising 224 females and 144 males.
· A total of 217 participant from Region D and a total of 151 participants from Region G.
· Extension for Credits: The programme was extended to ensure compliance with South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) standards.
· Skills Focus: Training in construction for roadworks and maintenance, including leadership competencies.
· Foundational Learning: Instruction in communication, numeracy, language, and RPL.
As a critical foundational intervention in the construction sector, this programme enhances learners’ competitiveness for employment opportunities across the City, particularly within capital investment projects and the private sector.
The Department of Economic Development is actively engaging with entities such as the Johannesburg Roads Agency and the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL), encouraging them without any obligation to consider this trained cohort as a valuable resource for their roadworks and maintenance projects, thereby supporting sustainability and maximizing return on investment for the City.
The MMC for Economic Development Cllr Nomoya Mnisi states that the DED skills programme should be seen as a critical nexus between human capital development specific to roadworks construction and maintenance through the National Certificate: NQF2 Construction: Roadworks skills programme. Upon successful completion of training, the learners will be assisted to compete for potential work and/or SMME opportunities linked to the implementation of city-wide road, infrastructure and maintenance projects.
The value-add proposition advocated through this skills programme supports the GLU’s strategic priority of Sustainable Economic Growth and Job Opportunity Creation for the unemployed youth in the CoJ’s marginalised regions.
The successful pass-out of this cohort of skilled young people is celebrated during the youth month when we commemorate the sacrifices made by the 1976 generation that stood against the imposition of Bantu education by the discredited apartheid government of the time.
ENDS
Issued by the City of Joburg
