Business Academy
The Business Academy is an exit strategy for the players in the Sports Academy. The aim is to help the young people with the first step of starting their careers.
We have partnered with various organizations that will give these students exposure to the business world in the form of holiday work and after school positions. There is even the possibility that some of these candidates may be employed permanently.
We placed approximately 20 young people in holiday positions with partnering organizations in December 2011. We met before their shifts to do devotions with them and to continue building a mentorship relationship that has been established through being involved with OAM Sports Academy.
We are working with Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Africa Skills Village as well as various other bodies to secure bursaries or learnerships for candidates that meet their criteria.
Our aim for 2012 is to continue to assist the students with as much working exposure as possible while they are finishing school and partaking in the Sports Academy.
The South African 2011 statistics provide a dire outlook as we are facing a scenario where 92% of school leavers will not find a job and over 60% will never be in permanent employment in their lifetime. The reality is that only about one third of our students will be helped through one of the above mentioned avenues. The rest will have to be assisted to either start their own businesses or form part of a business where they can gain experience and have a platform where their skills can be developed in a practical small business environment. We are therefore planning to start a small enterprise that will aim to employ students that leave school at the end of 2012 and give them that first opportunity. This will give them the option to gain experience and find employment that they qualify for or stay on and earn a part of the profits.
We are very excited and thankful that the Lord has blessed us with so many open doors in relation to the Business Academy. We hope that through the academy we help to get our students onto the right paths after school to ensure they can continue to grow as leaders and make a difference in their families, friendship groups and communities.
We will keep doing business until He returns (Luke 19:13).
Please continue to pray for us!
