Community Involvement

The YDU is a walk-in centre where trained personnel provide information about jobs, starting a business, career guidance, and give training and referral services to young people. They also provide outreach services to communities that are unable to access the centre.

Scenes from a recent Career Planning Workshop, held at the YDU, for youth from local communities.
Career Guidance and Counseling Services.
Career Guidance, and members of the College's community marketing outreach team.

Services offered by YDU: 

• Entrepreneurship skills, life skills, career guidance, bursaries, job preparation skills, counseling 
• Referrals related information

Operating Hours: 

• Monday to Thursday 08:00 to 16:30
• Friday 08:00 to 13:30

Location of the Centre

• Ekurhuleni East College for FET
  Kwa-Thema Campus - Room D 10
  Sam Ngema Road
  Kwa-Thema
  Springs

Achievements

• Recruited approximately 2500 students during school visits and exhibitions
• Formed partnerships with local organisations, corporates and other YDU related centres

Springs Campus has a fully equipped clothing factory which will be used for community upliftment programmes from 2010.

On the 9 of March 2011 the College invited unemployed women around, Kwa-Thema, Duduza and Tsakane to come and register for a sewing project, where they got the opportunity of being equipped with basic skills in dress making.

Thirty women were selected to start in this project.

Ekurhuleni East College donated a 3 hectare area of land on the College property to 30 unemployed members of the community, on which they could grow vegetables as a source of income. This marked the birth, on 1 September 2008, of the Savika Primary Organic Vegetables Co-op, which was registered as a co-operative in June 2009.

Seven of the original members still remain, and were able to secure sponsorship from Carnival City which mentored them for three months, providing essential tools (forks, spades, rakes, land hoes, picks, wheelbarrows), seedlings (cabbage, tomatoes, herbs, broccoli, rhubarb) and clothing (brown uniforms and boots).

In addition, in November 2010, three members were given the opportunity, under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture in Alberton, to receive sponsored training at the Tshwane University of Technology.

The group, now well on their way to becoming self-supporting, delivers their harvest to the Springs Market, the community, Pick & Pay, restaurants and even Carnival City, their original sponsor!