Skip to: site menu | section menu | main content
Business Skills & Development Centre, or BSDC as it is better known to its friends, supporters and learners, is an NGO with a long history and a remarkable record. BSDC was founded in 1987 by 3 women who saw the desperate need for young, black women to acquire job related skills in order to access meaningful employment in the business world. Nombeko Mlambo, Elaine Deas and Cathy Clarke made it happen in those dark days of apartheid and still serve on the Board of Directors of BSDC 16 years later! In this time, 2,000 learners have benefited from our personal development and training programmes and over 70% of them have become employed and continue to build careers in the business world. As breadwinners, the impact of that salary is profound: paying for the education of their siblings and their own children, paying for their own homes and municipal services, and building the economy of the country.
The successes that our past students have achieved are too numerous to mention here, but a few exciting ones are that Nomonde Mbulawa, who has worked her way up the corporate ladder since 1988, has recently been appointed personal assistant to the CEO of PetroSA; Thandi Sipuka is now PA to a Director of a major insurance company and Vivienne Toleni, who started off as a receptionist at Denel in 1998 and is now working in the Human Resources division there. Unwembi Communications, the IT company who has the contract to develop and support government web sites, has employed 4 of our students over the last 5 years and Thando Dinana who started there in 1998 is now driving a Mercedes Benz (admittedly not new!) and is buying his own first house.
Considering the horrifyingly high attrition rate of NGOs in the last few years as a direct result of the drying up of international and local funding, it is something of a miracle that BSDC has survived. Not only have we persevered and managed to pull through, but the support of our new funders means we can plan ahead and implement developments to improve on the services we offer unemployed youth who otherwise have no hope of improving their job prospects.
Our biggest funder for last year and this year is the Swiss South African Co-operative Initiative, through the Swiss Development Corporation. The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund has also shown substantial confidence in our training programme, as has Breadline Africa who continue to sponsor our work this year. We are especially grateful to the corporates who have come through for us, and Caltex is a new and valued sponsor and partner. Metropolitan deserves special mention as they have stood by us since 1999 not only as a funder, but they also continue to donate extensive professional services for our organisational development. Organisational Developments
One of the exciting changes that occurred in 2002 was moving our training programmes onto the Thornton campus of the Western Province Technical College from 1 July. Our class complement had grown from the original 15 to 25 in size and we could no longer comfortably fit into the premises we had been occupying for the past 15 years. In addition, the facilities at the WP Tech include a library, a student study room, a cafeteria, playing fields and large, airy classrooms. It feels good to be part of a vibrant educational institution and our students gain a great deal from mingling with the Tech students.
The bulk of our development and training takes place on our fulltime, 7 month programmes which include 1 month in-service training. Here learners engage with the process of starting their own businesses and find out all the pitfalls and what leads to success for themselves. They keep their own bookkeeping records, learn general office administration skills and how to conduct themselves professionally and communicate effectively in the office environment. They also learn to touch type and how to draw up business documentation in MSOffice, as well as use internet and email. But even more importantly than the ‘hardskills’ that they learn is the personal development of each learner, as well as the vital lifeskills of problem solving, thinking for themselves and how to access information and resources. These are the skills that will set them up for life.
100 learners enrolled on these programmes in 2002, and the 50 from the second semester will be finishing their in-service training in late February or early March. We are currently in the process of applying for SAQA accreditation of our training which will give our learners portable qualifications and access to lifelong learning.
An exciiting way to introduce entrepreneurship to our learners was the R10 challenge game. Having discussed the concept of running a small business on the second day of orientation, each learner was then lent R10 and told to try and make as much profit on that capital as they could, using legal means, within 2 weeks. One enterprising young lady made R97 by making and selling ginger beer: another made R35 profit making and selling vetkoek! Most importantly, they learnt that they could start a business with only R10 and that it can be fun! Employment
Zikhona and Fundiswa, in consultation with Elaine, work hard at finding in-service training placement for our learners, as well as assisting the constant stream of recently and not-so recently trained students in finding jobs. Our Youth Advisory Centre, where our placement services are located, is “home� to all our ex-students as it is here that they come for advice and assistance when they are having problems in their jobs, or need to progress into a more challenging career, or just to pop in to say “Hi!� and tell us what they are doing. In an average month, 8-10 placements are made but some months big job specs come in, like contracts from Telkom for call centres, and 10, 20 or more placements are made at a time. For every placement made there are, of course, very many who are unsuccessful. But is it is the task of the staff to help the disappointed persevere until they are successful. Their reward is the excitement and gratitude of the young person who has finally got their first real job.
A goal for 2003 is to professionalise the placement services so that not only will they be seeking better and bigger employment contracts, but they will also be generating income from these services.
Barbara Jones
Manager
1 February 2003