Amogelang Sebuseng is a Youth Capital Campaigner and an activist from Kuruman, in the Northern Cape. Together with his friends, Thapelo Masita and Jackson Myburg, Amogelang runs a Not for Profit Organisation called PHATSHIMO MOVEMENT.
Meet Amogelang
My name is Amogelang and I live in Kuruman. Over time, my friends and I realised that many young people in our villages struggle with finding information about different employment and career-building opportunities, such as learnerships, internships, bursaries and more. Not knowing about these opportunities can contribute to the high rate of unemployment as young people don’t know what doors to open; as a result, some young people in our villages turn to destructive behaviour.
As a solution, my friends and I decided to host Career Expos in Kuruman in collaboration with representatives from the Department of Labour and Employment.
What happened at the expos
At the expos, a total of 459 unemployed young people attended. During the expos, we arranged the following:
- Registered unemployed youth on the Department of Labour and Employment’s database, to be contacted when vacancies are available.
- Life skills session to empower young people on how to cope with being unemployed.
- We explained what the Unemployment Insurance Fund is and discussed labour-related challenges.
- We shared information about bursaries and learnerships.
We were able to not only strengthen the connections young people from our remote village have to opportunities, but also identify other information gaps. For example, we realised that young people at Glen Red (a village on the outskirts of Kuruman), do not have access to skills development programmes; information about the Department of Basic Education’s Matric Second Chance Programme; information about how to apply to study at tertiary education institutions; how to obtain a learner’s license and a driving license. Having a driver’s license is often regarded as one of the main criteria for entry level jobs in mining, especially for those who don’t have a matric certificate.
Our intention is to host other expos that will address the need for social capital and connections in our community.
What was the outcome?
The expo was a success because people in our communities came in numbers. It also made the role PHATSHIMO MOVEMENT, can play to assist young people in finding their path to different opportunities.
But the expo has national relevance too – as a serious call to help young people from our remote villages, so that they are not left behind from realising their potential.