Mutual & Federal supports artisans in training
Corporate Social Investment (CSI) is part of our Responsible Business agenda, which focuses on being responsible and demonstrating care to our communities, employees, customers and the environment. Investing in the meaningful and impactful socioeconomic development of local communities is therefore at the heart of our strategy,” says Busisiwe Sithole, Mutual & Federal’s head of Responsible Business.
Mutual & Federal is committed to making a meaningful and sustainable impact on the lives of people in its local communities to thereby enable positive futures. Its initiatives aim to support our country’s transformation agenda and socioeconomic development priorities by focusing mainly on education, skills development (mainly industry specific), agriculture and financial education. In addition to the financial contribution made by the company, staff members also volunteer in order to make a difference.
2015 Highlights
Education, skills development and job creation: Artisans Development Programme
When vehicles are in accidents, the current trend in South Africa is to replace the parts. This approach however has its own disadvantages, as imported parts are expensive, mainly because of the rand/dollar exchange rate.
South Africa has lost the skills to panel beat and repair vehicles, largely because most insurers drive down the cost of labour, which makes it unprofitable for businesses to retain their panel beating artisans — and this severely impacts job creation.
There is also the environmental impact of throwing away dented parts and replacing them with imported ones.
One of Mutual & Federal’s major sustainability projects is to help the country to regain the lost skills by developing a pool of competent artisans. But, to do this, there is a great need for partnerships. Mutual & Federal therefore partners with the STI Foundation to support its FET College programme to train artisans in motor mechanics and spray painting.
The programme has yielded positive results. Many artisans have graduated and subsequently obtained permanent employment, or went on to open their own panel beating shops. The programme therefore contributes to youth employment as well as small business development, and creates a pool of economically active citizens.
Industry specific learnership and internship programme
The Mutual & Federal Development Trust is dedicated to developing industry specific skills, by providing learnership and internship opportunities for unemployed youth. During the programme, the learners selected are placed at brokers and with Mutual & Federal. This provides them with an opportunity to be exposed to a vast pool of careers within the industry. They also write the industry regulatory exams to obtain Saqa (South African Qualifications Authority) recognised certification. This increases the learners’ chances of obtaining permanent employment.
The short-term insurance industry doesn’t seem to appeal to many youths, but once learners are exposed to different careers in the learnership programme, they soon realise how attractive the industry actually is. Post the programme, more than 60% of learners have obtained permanent employment at Mutual & Federal and at various brokers, while others began internships.
Matric Support Programme
Mutual & Federal has over the years continued to partner with Winning Teams to support about 100 schools in Limpopo to prepare for their Matric exams and increase their Maths and Science pass rate. This year, focus was given to youth who did not pass well in the previous year and were therefore working on improving their marks. Mutual & Federal employees also spent time with the learners to expose them to different careers within the insurance industry.
“In addition to the funds we invest in the youth development programme, our employees share their invaluable knowledge and skills with unemployed youth who are future employees and leaders, to make a sustainable impact,” says Sithole.
Agriculture and job creation: Sheep Shearing Project
Mutual & Federal contributes annually towards the Sheep Shearing Project, where over 250 members of rural communities, with no access to electricity or even basic sanitation, are given the skills to generate an income without any of these utilities at their disposal. Hand shearing is an intricate skill learnt through practical and theoretical work, but it can be done anywhere, and with no electricity.
Each year, the trainees complete the course and obtain permanent employment from Agri businesses looking for their very scarce skills. Trainees who completed the programme are today active economically and contribute to the wool industry by ensuring that high quality clips are delivered to the market. Aside from hand shearers, only skilled shearers with electric tools can take wool from sheep.
Animal Tagging Project
Emerging farmers are often faced with several challenges, livestock disease and stock theft being the most common. It has been noted that this problem is created by a lack of knowledge and education. In most cases, livestock owners do not keep records and the animals are not marked for identification purposes as per the Animal Identification Act 2002 (Act No 6 of 2002).
This makes it problematic to recover the animals, curb stock theft and implement the disease management and administration processes.
Mutual & Federal therefore partners with the department of agriculture, Nerpo (National Emergent Read Meat Producers Organisation), National Undertakers Association of South Africa and a farmers’ organisation, to address these challenges. Through the partnership we have funded 10?000 tags, which will help the emerging farmers to better manage their risks as we continue to protect what’s important to our customers.