A glimmer of hope for a lost generation

One of the apprentices at the pottery school gets down to the task in hand swissinfo.ch

Members of the post-apartheid generation of young, black South Africans are being given a head start in life thanks to a Swiss-funded initiative.

One of dozens of projects to receive a grant from the Swiss-South African Cooperation Initiative (SSACI) is a pottery school in the township of Soweto.

The one-year course – which is heavily oversubscribed – is open to unemployed and unskilled students looking to gain vocational training as ceramic artists.

SSACI estimates that the unemployment rate in South Africa currently hovers at around 30 to 40 per cent, but those in charge of selecting and coordinating the projects say the jobless figure among young people is even higher.

“When you look specifically at young black South Africans, you find that unemployment runs at about 70 per cent, so there’s a tremendous need to find employment for these young people,” explains SSACI project manager, Ken Duncan.

“And one of the greatest obstacles they face is a lack of skills – even when there are jobs available, they often don’t get them because they don’t have the training,” he adds.

Learning skills

The aim of the vocational programme in Soweto – a crowded township which is home to more than one million people and less than half an hour by car from the country’s financial capital, Johannesburg – is to give young people the necessary skills either to find their way onto the job market or to set up in business on their own.

Martin Mathole, director of the course, says he applied for SSACI funding to start the teaching programme because he wanted to “give something back to the community and to young people”.

“In South Africa, there is a shortage of jobs for young people and my aim is to get them trained and to ensure they can earn a living for themselves,” he told swissinfo.

Mathole says he founded the school in a bid to tackle – if only at a local level – the serious consequences of youth unemployment.

“Our population is in poverty and it is difficult for young people to find work, which means you have young people doing nothing every day.

“And if you don’t have any activities to fill your day, then a lot of thoughts come into your mind, most of them negative.”

Limited resources and a tight annual budget mean Mathole can only take a maximum of 40 students each year and is forced to turn away hundreds of other applicants.

Busy workshop

The studio where much of the vocational training takes place is cramped and filled with objects in various stages of completion: unglazed ceramic vases, clay jugs, hand-crafted bowls and ornately decorated cups.

The room echoes to the frenetic hum of the potter’s wheel, as students take it in turns to learn the skills of the trade.

“As a child, I had a great interest in art, and I wanted to make something of my talent and show people I can do it well,” says course participant, Mndeni Sono.

“I heard on the radio last year that there was going to be a school for ceramics so I applied here.”

In an adjacent school library, another group of students takes time out from the practical side of the course to learn the economic theory of their chosen profession: how to turn their newly-learned skills into a successful business opportunity.

The business of ceramics

“In many ways, we’ve found that the technical training component is the easy part,” says Duncan, “because the trainer controls all the variables.

“But what happens to the young people after they’ve finished the training? They need some help in marketing themselves, in locating and pursuing job opportunities or in starting their own businesses.”

Mathole believes his duty as course director is two-fold: to help each of the 40 students become proficient ceramic artists as well as to dispense advice on how to market themselves and make money from their artistic creativity.

“This is not just a practical course,” Mathole says.

“It’s also about marketing and business management. Many students ask questions about how to write a business plan or how and where to apply for a loan. Then they start to get a map of life and know where they are going from here,” he adds.

Like many of his fellow students, Sono is already planning the first stages of his career after graduating from the training programme.

“After the course, I want to go and work abroad, and when I come back to South Africa I’d like to set up my own studio and teach other young people how to do ceramics.”

Hundreds helped

Sono is one of nearly 1,700 young South Africans to have benefited from a SSACI-sponsored vocational course since the trust fund was set up 18 months ago.

In his capacity as director of the trust, Duncan regularly tours SSACI-funded projects like the one in Soweto and says Sono’s enthusiasm and determination to succeed is proof that the training programmes are well received.

“To go from unemployment and hopelessness to a situation where you are skilled and employed is one of the most radical experiences a person can have.

“And the trainees who have been through some of our funded training programmes and found employment have a positive attitude which has to be seen to be believed really.”

swissinfo, Ramsey Zarifeh

Key facts

SSACI is jointly sponsored by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and ten Swiss companies with business interests in South Africa.
SSACI was set up 18 months ago when the corporate donors pledged a total of SFr1 million annually for five years, a figure matched by the SDC.
Nearly SFr4 million has so far been spent on sponsoring a total of 26 projects across South Africa.