Zenzele Production Groups

Not all people have the necessary inherent skills to become entrepreneurs. As many of our beneficiaries are people with varying levels of education (many are even illiterate), most of Zenzele´s trainees are not potential entrepreneurs and will seek employment in the formal sector.

Zenzele´s Production Groups provide unemployed new graduates with the opportunity to utilise their skills on real contracts and gain valuable work experience. Participants are encouraged to move on from working with the Production Groups within an eighteen–month period, and set up their own businesses or seek employment in the formal sector. Guidance, mentorship and skills transference are all part of Zenzele´s contribution towards providing an enabling environment for its trainees success.

An example of one of Zenzele´s Production Groups is the PepClo Production Line, a job creation and experiential training initiative which was launched in September 2000 and has created a work environment for 24 previously unemployed people. Workers earn a real market related wage through the production of Student Prince school shirts. The goal is for the workers to have acquired sufficient knowledge and skills to take ownership of the project and run their own business within a timeframe of around 18 months. Alternatively, they may wish to leave the group and independently seek formal employment with the knowledge and experience they have gained.

Profit–sharing, accountability, time–keeping and work ethics are discussed at monthly meetings. Workers have joined the national union and have appointed shop stewards who liase with managers when the needs arise.

This model is currently being documented by the C.S.I.R. (Council for Scientific Industrial Research) for purposes of replication in other communities.