Evaluation, Recommendations and Conclusion 5.1 Introduction
5.11 Recommendations
The primary purpose of skills training was to make the beneficiaries self reliant by becoming self-employed. With fewer jobs in the market, training them just to go looking for jobs elsewhere would not help to realize the goals of the scheme. Hence, every effort should be made to equip them to be self-employed rather than to look for jobs elsewhere. While it was true that not everyone of them would possess the ability to run their businesses, all of them desired to work to make a living. Those who were not capable of running their own businesses should be joined with others who could be in a partnership. In this way, they could put their labour to fruitful use.
The scheme should broaden the scope of the skills that were taught in the training centre. This would give opportunities to those who are talented or interested in other fields than textile work to benefit from the scheme. Other skills like carpentry, auto mechanic, panel beating, electrical/electronic repair, catering, etc, should be included in the curriculum of the training centre. Opening workshops or restaurants where these beneficiaries could train would not only give them first hand experience, but also yield revenue for the scheme as services rendered by them would be paid for by the patronising public.
In order to achieve this, the scheme should liase with institutions of higher learning such as technikons to draw on other expertise for training the beneficiaries. Students from these institutions could do their internship at the training centre. This would reduce the cost of hiring professionals while at the same time drawing from the expertise of the wider society.
Training should be accredited by the relevant government agencies. This would help those who might not want to start their own businesses, to look for jobs elsewhere.
With certificates obtained from the training centre, the beneficiaries could seek employment elsewhere.
Markets should be sourced for the products of the beneficiaries. Periodic exhibitions should be organised in this regard. The scheme could organise fairs where the products of the beneficiaries could be displayed for the public. This would serve to not only advertise the beneficiaries but also the activities of the scheme. Special church occasions, like harvest and retreats, should make space for the display of the products of the beneficiaries. In addition, the church newsletters, which were distributed every Sunday could become a very powerful publicity/advertisement instrument for such products.
Those that were trained require access to finance in order to establish their businesses.
Support facilities, including access to finance, should be made available to them. The Scheme could arrange with financial institutions or government agencies to provide credit for the beneficiaries. The Scheme should enter a contract where loan facilities would be made available to them to start their businesses, while they in return, in addition to paying off the loan in instalments, will employ and train other people from the scheme.
Whereas it was a good idea to establish empowerment centres in as many communities as possible, it would be more expedient to adequately staff and equip a central training centre. This would reduce the cost of running the scheme by cutting down duplication of poorly equipped centres and staff, and also lead to a high standard of excellence and quality of products by concentrating equipment and staff in a central place. It would also be easier to start other centres as the scheme expands.
Beneficiaries of the scheme could then be used to start similar training centres in their various communities of origin.
There should be a streamlining of the skills in which an individual beneficiary should be trained. This would engender specialization. For example, those who are talented in and want to be trained in tailoring should specialize in that. In the same vein, those who want to do upholstery related textile work should specialize in it. Training everybody in all the skills would make them jacks of all trade without making them masters of any.
The Scheme should be made independent while retaining the financial sponsorship of the church. One way of doing this would be to move the training centre from the church building in which it was located to a place where it would be exclusively used as a training centre. This would not only provide space for packing materials and equipment used in the training centre, it would also reduce the church-skewed image of the scheme, thereby making it a little easier for people of other faiths to participate.
One of the reasons cited by some of the respondents for leaving their previous employment was the short-term contract nature of the jobs, which resulted in insecurity. To avoid this, those who were placed in jobs of any sort should be helped to secure written contracts from their employers, which would state in clear terms the duration of the job and compensation due to them in the case of termination. The legal arm of the Foundation should play an important role in this regard.
The beneficiaries should be encouraged to organise themselves in unions according to their various business lines and to be part of already existing trade unions. This would help them to speak with one voice in terms of collective bargaining and to access and benefit from any public policy and facility that may be available to them.
The social capital available to the scheme should be broadened by embracing other organizations and individuals that could be assets to the scheme. Members of the church who hold decision making positions at various organizations and businesses like banks should be brought into the board of the scheme. This might attract sponsorship from such organisations.
Finally, the management of the scheme should be handled by a team that is solely committed to the scheme and not church administrators who already had their hands full with theological activities. The HOPE Clinic was operating effectively because it was being managed by professionals, some of whom had no other jobs than the clinic work.