Exchanging their overalls and gumboots for smart attire, four of the six interns who formed part of the Friends of the Liesbeek’s (FoL) first learnership programme received their National Certificates in Environmental Practices on Tuesday 30 August at Omni HR Consulting’s offices in Mowbray.
Addressing the graduation ceremony, Andrew Bennett, Education Director of FoL, said, as a community-based organisation, their aim was to reframe the Liesbeek as a place for people to interact, to come and enjoy the space, to clean up the natural ecology and to recreate the natural environment of the river so that it became a more natural space.
“That’s essentially the work of the Friends and we can’t do it without hands on the river,” he said.
This is where the Liesbeek Maintenance Project (LMP) comes in. Comprising eight staff members, the team focusses on cleaning the riparian edge (the land on the banks of the river) and managing and controlling alien invasive species while replanting with indigenous vegetation.
“And with the internship, we’ve been able to add more hands to that team,” says Bennett.
At the end of last year, FoL, ABAX Investments Foundation and Omni entered into a partnership, setting up a learnership programme for six individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Bennett said the success of the skills development initiative was visible in the work done on the river.
“It came about through our core funder, ABAX Investments Foundation, approaching Friends of the Liesbeek and saying, let’s explore other avenues for funding. That is how this project was birthed, through discussions that took place from about September last year.”
ABAX made available a R250 000 grant to go towards a work-based, eight-month learnership; from January until August.
“It essentially provides an opportunity for six previously unemployed, disadvantaged young people, between the ages of 20 and 26,” said Bennett.
The next step was finding a training partner, and with a relationship already in place with Omni, FoL didn’t have to look far.
“About five years ago, we had a partnership with Omni when we put the current LMP team through this exact same learnership,” he says.
In terms of FoL’s overall aims, Bennett said the learnership served various objectives, including expanding the LMP team.
“One of the exciting aspects is that we have almost been able to double the size of the team through this skills development programme and, of course, that means a wider reach and impact on the river.”
He said, the learnership programme also helped build a succession planning platform.
“It has never been our aim for this amazing team to stay with FoL forever. We want to see them move on to bigger and better things but we need to plan for succession to bring in new employees to maintain the team.”
Through the learnership, FoL was also able to appoint one of the existing team members to act as a supervisor for the interns.
“That is skills development on its own, creating an opportunity for that person to lead their own team, understand the dynamics and necessities that it requires to work with a group of interns,” he said.
According to Bennett, discussions were underway with ABAX and Omni to repeat the process next year and, hopefully, beyond.
“Next year, we will be looking at an intake of new learners to the programme and there is a possibility of at least one of the current cohort being offered a further learnership at another NQF level next year and being able to stay at FoL for potentially another year of work experience and training,” he said.
Each of the six interns received a R2 500 stipend over the eight-month period and, on average, attended two to three days of training per month. Two interns left the programme before completion, one to pursue a job opportunity and the other for personal reasons.
Accepting their NQF 2 Level certificates on Tuesday were Anita Vetman, Aphelele Ntlahla, Nomthandazo Makhendlana and Qhamani Ntlahla.
Nick Fordyce, chair of FoL, thanked their long-term corporate partners for their support and the Liesbeek maintenance team for their skills transference.
He said FoL had two broad goals: to improve the river for the community that uses it – both people and other species – and to create opportunities for people.
“We want the Friends to be a stepping stone to something bigger and better. And we’ve seen that particularly through our LMP managers who have been able to go on and take on positions within the city and the province. We sincerely want that to also be something that exists for our maintenance team. We want to see this class and our team being able to take on better and bigger opportunities as they present themselves,” he said.
Fordyce congratulated the graduates on their perseverance and commitment.
“I know this has been a lot of hard work and sometimes it’s difficult to really understand what that might mean, travelling back and forth, and, at the end of the day, surviving on what is really a small stipend. You deserve to be really proud of yourselves and what you achieved.”
- For more information, email info@fol.org.za
