Holistic skills development
Protecting children starts with basic economic security of the parents and strengthening the situation of women in the community. Women who are financially independent and trained, have a greater chance of having a say over their lives as well as their children's and can better negotiate balanced protective relationships, an important issue in preventing malnutrition, abuse and the spread of HIV.
We are an associate member of Learn To Earn so that we meet our skill development and job creation aims.
Like Learn to Earn we seek to develop people socially, economically, emotionally and spiritually.
Each practical skills course is divided into modules and includes a life's skills component.
Keeping this in mind we have developed a tiered curriculum that whilst aiming to equip students with a complete set of skills and tools to run their own small business, also offers numerous exit opportunities for students that want to follow a different path.
All our skills development courses also incorporates at least one life skills module and at least one business skills module. It is our philosophy that personal growth is as important as skills development.
Sewing School
The structure of the sewing school training consists of four levels. Level one is a basic sewing course that offers students the opportunity to use a domestic sewing machine. Level one is a short (6 week) course. The idea with the level one course is to identify committed students that will continue with the follow up levels. We present three level one courses in the first semester of each year so that we can have a large impact (36 students) on the community. The exit opportunities for graduates from the level one course are: further training and self-employment.
The level two course focuses more on garment creation and practical skills. This is a longer course that covers a 9 week period in the second semester of each year. The current impact of the level two course is 12-24 students. The exit opportunities are: further training, self-employment and formal employment.
The level three course (9 weeks) runs during the third semester of each year. The impact is 12-24 students and there is a shift in the focus to job readiness. On this level we guide students through the process of using their practical skills in real economic environments. There are also earning opportunities for students through our enterprise development initiatives. Exit strategies at this level are: further training, self-employment and formal employment with a clear focus on earning opportunities.
The level four course is geared towards applying practical skills to earn. Level four integrates our enterprise development modules and projects to create an environment wherein students learn how to earn with what they learned. The impact of this course is 8 – 10 students and the outcome will be focused on self-employment and entrepreneurial development.
Early Childhood Development
In offering teacher training we partner with the Centre For Creative Education.
The Centre for Creative Education is a registered tertiary education institution and offers the NQF Level 4 Early Childhood Development Teacher Training Course at the Work For Love Centre.
Work For Love also offers teacher and parent enrichment courses that addresses fundamental questions like what it means to be a parent and what it means to be a child today including physical, artistic and craft activities in all lessons. Modules covered include basic childhood development, the importance of play and story-telling, creating a harmonious environment, nutrition and health and how to support the emotional and physical changes in the young child.
Baking
Bake for Profit is a Learn to Earn module that we will implement. The focus of this program will be to train students for a home based baking business. There is a very strong focus on the business part of the course and this module also includes a saving plan for the students to save towards the startup costs for their home based business.
The impact of the course will be 10 – 12 students per term. The course is 9 weeks with 2 sessions of 8 hours each per week, totaling 18 sessions.
Exit opportunities for this course will be heavily geared towards self-employment although some formal employment and internship possibilities do exist within the community.
The bake for profit course will also include a life skills and business skills module.
Conservation and Edible Landscaping
This training and job creation project is designed and will be implemented by WESSA. The Masiphumelele (Masi) wetland rehabilitation project aims to rehabilitate a section of the Mas wetlands and thereby improve functioning of a currently degraded wetland system at Masi township in Cape Town. The rehabilitation work will be coupled with a strong pro-poor focus on job creation, capacity building and development of an outdoor classroom community park and vegetable garden for the youth. Rehabilitation of ecological infrastructure, particularly in this case the restoration of the wetland edge via erosion control measures, improved storm water management and replanting of wetland plants and subsistence scale vegetable gardening is aimed improving the flow of water the wetland and improving its water purification functioning.
The main deliverables of the project are:
• Completion of Enviro Skills Prac and Work For Love
Life Skills course.
• Rehabilitation (reshaping and planting).
• Establishment of subsistence veg garden.
• To have rehabilitated a section of Masi wetland.
• Job creation for one year end
Free Popular University
Our vision is an adult learning institution by the community for the community. Inspired by the German 'Freie Volkshochschule', we encourage community members to express their educational needs and we facilitate members who are willing and able to offer adult training courses to do so at our centre.
• Develop further holistic skills courses in line with the
Learn To Earn model according to market needs
(Baking, Conservation/Edible Landscaping, Computer
Skills, Desktop Design, • Administration, Carpentry,
Artisans, Barista)
• Mentoring workshops/hub for graduates to develop
their enterprises or job placement
• Approaching a popular university (ie Freie
Volkshochschule Germany) for an exchange of
community members to access courses to support the
family socially, economically, emotionally and
spiritually on all subjects by the community for the
community
• Empower the community to take responsibility for
their own, and the centre's development
