“Computer training for the unemployed and workers” read the adverts for the Resource Action Group (RAG) courses in three of Cape Town’s community papers distributed on the Cape Flats and in townships.
But anyone who thinks the eight-week courses are simply about getting a paper qualification is mistaken. Job-seeking, presentation and customer-care training, HIV/Aids awareness and personal development skills are also part of the package.
“What kind of people are we? / We are poor, very poor / but we are not stupid”, reads the first few lines of a poem on the wall in one computer room. It was written by “illiterates of India” and published in Adult Education and Development.
One student, Dalindyebo Magwa, did his homework before signing up for the course.
“At the time I was looking [to do something]. I was looking at other courses. It was the cheapest,” says the 25-year-old Khayelitsha resident. He wants to get the edge so that he can land himself a job. Magwa matriculated in 1996 and went on to complete a bachelor’s degree in communication at Fort Hare University, but is still unemployed.
Another student, Bongiwe Mtaki, attends RAG classes while simultaneously studying for her national diploma in public management at technikon. She came to RAG because her technikon computer classes are scheduled between 7pm and 9pm, during which time she has no transport home to Kraaifontein, about 40km away.
Amanda Samuels finished matric in 1996 and has not been able to find a job since. “You apply but they don’t get back to you and you sit at home. I did that so I have to do something else,” she says.
These are three of the students who will graduate from RAG on December 20.
For the past 10 years RAG has offered various skills training courses. It was initially established in a room in a house for this purpose, which was also used as a resource centre for the local community.
Today almost 70% of its students are young unemployed women, many married with children. Although the courses are aimed at those younger than 35, several older people also attend to gain skills to help with their children’s homework or to deliver work project reports and the like.
Computer trainer David Kapp says many of those who walk through the door have low self-esteem because they haven’t been able to find a job or because they never finished school.
“Maybe they were told at school ‘You will never amount to anything’ or ‘You’re stupid’,” he says. “They say, ‘I have no skills. I didn’t finish school.'”
But part of the training is designed to enable students to recognise what they can do. This can range from handling money or stock-taking for a kiosk to conflict-resolution skills learned in often-harsh neighbourhoods where poverty and gangsterism run rife.
“There are a whole lot of informal skills they have learned, that are waiting to be brought out,” Kapp says. “We expect them to be confident when they walk out of here.”
Rowena Theunissen, a mother of four who attended a previous course, wrote a letter to the council regarding improving the situations of many backyard squatters in her area of Heideveld on the Cape Flats.
The curriculum vitaes the RAG students compile include a section on skills and abilities.
Citing recent research that showed that simply having a paper qualification would not necessarily secure a job, Kapp says personal life skills make the difference.
He jokes that it was difficult at times to get youngsters to dress appropriately for a job interview. And then there were those cases when a boyfriend or a “drinking neighbour” were listed as references.
Former RAG volunteer and trainer Marileze Williams has established Eyona Yona, a job placement company aimed at facilitating work placements for the unemployed from disadvantaged areas.
At least two RAG “graduates” have found jobs as administrators: Belinda Hendricks at a primary school and Letitia Cameron at Eyona Yona itself.
Another RAG “graduate”, Pumeza Mapukata, who came to Cape Town with her parents from KwaZulu-Natal, has started her own catering company. Clients include RAG, Parliament and a five-year contract with the University of the Western Cape, according to a RAG newsletter.
Although RAG regularly advertises in the community newspapers, about 40% of those who attend classes have heard about the NGO by word of mouth. It has reached 20 000 people with its training, workshops and outreach programmes.
Each year the NGO runs four eight-week courses that are attended by between 100 and 150 students.
It has formed links with other Western Cape non-governmental partners, including the Refugee Forum, Grassroots Educare Centre and the Volunteer Centre, and belongs to the Youth Development Network.