Through its Thuso Fund, the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet community loyalty programme is funding the essential upgrade of the hardware and software for the Learn to Earn Graphic Design Training course. The course offers unemployed Matric graduates a five-month bridging course and has a proven track record of setting motivated, creative students from impoverished communities on paths to successful studies and careers in the graphic design and illustration industry.
Learn to Earn, which offers unemployed, disenfranchised people skills, runs 14 market-relevant training programmes across four Western Cape campuses. The short, intensive skills programmes are aimed at the holistic development of the students providing them with opportunities to gain scarce skills, financial acumen and vital preparation for the world of work.
Courses such as the Graphic Design programme are specifically designed to boost the opportunities of young people still disadvantaged by inadequate education and the lack of social capital and economic resources. Learn to Earn’s ethos is to restore dignity, self-worth and hope for the future while transferring the real-world skills that empowers students to become economically active and change their destinies for the better. Graduates of Learn to Earn’s Graphic Design course have gone on to study at top design schools; take up positions at premier South African creative agencies, and even, win Lourie Awards.
“The advantages of the Graphic Design skills programme works both ways,” says Roché van Wyk, Learn to Earn’s Director. “Young people who would otherwise continue to be excluded from the digital and design world of work, get to take their rightful place in these vital industries. On the other hand, it also serves the industry which urgently wants to embrace diversity and needs to tap into emerging, young African talent.”
Essential to the Learn to Earn Graphic Design skills programme is the specialist hardware and software used by students in the training, which is a considerable investment. Students need to be trained on modern equipment using up to date software packages to be industry-relevant. MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet will be providing the funding to upgrade Learn to Earn’s ten-year-old hardware and install the latest software that will ensure a seamless bridge into formal tertiary education options.
“South African design, design thinking and our broader visual arts industries can only benefit immensely by tapping into the talent that has been historically excluded,” says Pieter Twine, MySchool’s General Manager. “It’s not just about tackling youth unemployment; it is about the country’s need for economically active young people from all walks of life. We need these vibrant young people in our creative agencies and our corporations contributing their unique vision to a better world.”
To support Learn to Earn, sign up for free as a MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet supporter at www.myschool.co.za and select Learn to Earn as the cause that matters to you, at no cost.
