The youth unemployment crisis is a glaring problem that dares every South African citizen to take action. Giving young people from disadvantaged communities the necessary, and required skills to access decent employment is one of the actions that can be taken. GOLD recognizes this need; thus, strives to find opportunities for young people to be trained in a skill,and then connects them with prospective employers.

The skill to drive a scooter license is what some big retail corporate companies require. Pick n Pay is one of the retail companies that has a demand for young people who have the license to drive a scooter. When GOLD heard about this demand, it sought to find young people within the GOLD Grads network who are unemployed.

The GOLD Grads who came forward, attended informal tutorials so as to  understand the material related to the Scooter Learners License test. Diligently they gathered to prepare for their test on the 15th of April. Aphephelele Ntoto is one of the young GOLD Grads who woke up early to go  write her Scooter Learners License test. The arrival of this day came after many challenges to find employment soon after matriculating in 2015. She says that she has been “looking for a job everywhere [without] getting a reply”. Similar to Aphelelele, Vuyolwethu Wona  experienced a few challenges in the process of trying to find a job. He says that he struggled to get isipani (a job) because he does “not have the necessary qualification to get a better job”.

Despite the challenges Asiphelele Ntoto,  Vuyolwethu Wona and Sihle Khuselo have experienced in their search for employment, they came out of the traffic department testing center with their Scooter Learners License. They are three out of a goal of 100 GOLD Grads, GOLD aims to support to get their Scooters license so that they may be in better position to get a job.

Asiphelele, Vuyolwethu and Sihle have taken the first step towards a possible better future not only for them but also their communities.