Opportunities are always met with preparation and are not served on a silver platter, however, the Etwatwa Youth Tech and Career Expo did the opposite and served the youth of Etwatwa a buffet of opportunities in the sector of technology. As our country slowly embraces the 4th industrial revolution and all its technological advances, the Etwatwa Greening Team in partnership with Gauteng e-government hosted a career expo at Etwatwa. This exuberant event took place on the 20th of October 2023 at W.J Mpengesi primary school.
The event was inspired by the scarcity of career expos at Etwatwa as it is confused with Daveyton to be the same township, which is why whenever career expos are done at Daveyton they necessarily do not reach the residents of Etwatwa before the career expos occur hence only a few people from Etwatwa get the opportunity to attend them. The Etwatwa Greening Team thought it necessary to bring such opportunities to their township to help the youth of Etwatwa to deviate from activities that are gradually ruining their future.
Starting with a welcoming speech from the school’s principal the career expo was inaugurated, it was followed by a keynote address presented by Phelokazi Ntanjana who is the Deputy Director General from COCGTA and e-government. In her keynote speech, she further elaborated on the purpose of the career expo and motivated all the young people who were present in the hall to grab the opportunities that were brought to them and make the most out of them, which shall them combat unemployment and progress in life.
The event went further in emphasis on all the opportunities in various departments and the technology sector that were brought to the youth Etwatwa. As more speakers got to the podium their words seemed to amplify the word opportunity beyond everything else that was spoken.
“Last year the premier of Gauteng decided to approve what is called the Gauteng Integrated Development Strategy (GIDS) which is based on five pillars which have a number of programs that have been successful in benefitting the youth,” expressed the Youth Directorate from the premier’s office.
He further broke down what each pillar stands for and the already implemented programs that fall under them. In addition to all this he emphasized that according to the structure of the strategies that are noted in the GIDS, it obligates the Gauteng government to successfully implement the strategies or account for not fulfilling the strategies that are stated in it. After he left the podium a number of entities in the space of technology also came to share some of their exciting free training programs that could enable the youth to navigate the field of entrepreneurship from the perspective of technology, some of the names of these entities are the Siyafunda program under Huawei, BAM Telecoms, Edu Nova Digital Learning Hub amongst others.
The final item for the events’ program was a very brief digital marketing training that showed people how they could up their digital marketing strategies by using their phones. Overall this particular career expo did not only bring opportunities for the youth of Etwatwa but also hope that unemployment can be eradicated if they stand up and grab the opportunities at hand.
By Rhulani Fundzama
