•  Department of Labour
•  Sports Against Crime
•  ABSA Learnership
•  Christmas Carols
•  Early Childhood Development Training
•  Advertising and Marketing Training
•  ATB Media Concepts
•  Adult Basic Education and Training
•  Food and Beverages Training
•  Life Skills Training
•  Basic Computer Training
•  Sports and Recreation
•  Ballet Dancing
•  Career Guidance
•  Integrated Youth Work in Communities
•  Career Guidance Day
•  Movies 

* Department Of Labour

50 young students were placed at various Woolworth Stores for employment after receiving some initial training. They were trained and employed in the following jobs: till operators, foods sales, customer service and interactive sales assistants. This employment opportunity was made possible by the Department of Labour in conjunction with the Youth Desk which was involved in the recruitment and selection of participants.

* Sports Against Crime

The Youth Desk involvement was in the planning, coordinating and officiating the event.

The main aim of the event was to raise awareness with pupils and students about fighting crime. It involved the Alexandra Police Station, the Youth Desk, Alexandra School Sports and Region 7 Sports Department amongst others.

* ABSA Learnership 

With an increase of clients within the banking industry 70 Youth from Alexandra and nearby suburbs were invited to their call centre training as they were looking for young aspirant people who are interested in the call centre industry. This is a 12 month programme and the learners are still on training.

* Christmas Carols 

The youth desk was given the task of organizing the December 2003 event. This was the year-end function of the Alexsan Kopano Educational Trust. Children were treated to the Alexandra Adult Choir who led the Christmas Carols and Songs and three Father/Mother Christmases gave the children some sweets after the event. The numbers of children range from 600 to 700.

For some of them it was an early Christmas, but for most of them it was really a Christmas because most of them come from the nearby shacks next to the centre, meaning they are from poor families. So we felt great to give them a Christmas day which most other children across the country don't really enjoy. We hope the next one will be even better.

* Early Childhood Development Training

This learnership focuses mainly on people who are interested or who are already working in the field of early childhood development. It was given to people who are interested in the Montessori training method. 100 people were recruited by the ETDP-SETA.

The programme also includes dictionary reading and computer literacy.

* Marketing and Advertising Training

This learnership focused on Marketing and Advertising. It was designed solely for students who are interested in this field of study. Among other things it covers copywriting, marketing, research, branding, digital application, creative production, project management and entrepreneurship.

This learnership is conducted under the auspices of the Imagination Lab, and has 23 students from Alexandra. It is conducted at the Alexsan Resource Centre, daily from Monday to Fridays, from 8:30 - 13:00 hours.

* ATB Media Concepts

The Services SETA and ATB Media Concepts are the facilitators of this learnership, under the auspices of FEDUSA (trade union) and its affiliates. 40 Learners are participating in this 12 month programme.

Six different learnerships were made available namely: Office Administration Level 3, Secretarial/ Administration Level 4, Public Relations and Communication Level 4, Marketing Management Level 4, Field Market Research Level 4 and Contact Centre Operation Level 4.

* Adult Basic Education and Training (HWSETA)

This learnership is for people who are working within the health and welfare sector. It actually looks at imparting skills to illiterate people within this sector. We assisted this project by recruiting 30 people.

The following skills were covered: Reading, Spelling, Writing and Numerical Skills. 

* Food and Beverage Training

Gallagher Estates facilitates this Food and Beverage learnership in conjunction with Alexsan Youth Desk and Food and Beverage SETA. Learners are taken to a variety of places so that they can also obtain practical experience. It caters for people who have an interest in the hospitality industry. 20 people participated in this project.

Their training includes: Cooking, Bar Tendering, Waitressing and Table Décor.

* Life skills training

Life skills training is still an important input for our youth. The life skills programme is designed so that it covers a range of subjects for our youth. This life skills programme took place in conjunction with the Youth Empowerment Network.

It covers a range of modules such as: job-hunting skills, preparing a C.V., entrepreneurship, story gathering, building confidence, team building, relationship & diversity and life planning.

The life skills programme takes eight weeks to complete and 40 students participated.

* Basic Computer Skills

This programme takes place every day from 9 in the morning to 4:30 in the afternoon. In the morning it caters for out of school youth who want to polish up their computer skills. In the afternoon is for the primary school children from the ages of 10 to 14.

It covers the following:
1. Basic typing
2. How to switch the computer on and off in the right way
3. How to save a document
4. Drawing on the computer

* Sports and Recreation Programme

The Sports and Recreation programme takes place in the morning and in the afternoon. In the morning it caters for pre-school children and in the afternoon for children in primary, high school and out of school youth.

For the morning programme pre-school children come to the centre from 9-12 in the morning, from Monday to Friday. The programme mainly focuses on physical gross motor skills that include balance, speed, control, eye/hand coordination and eye/foot co-ordination. Mentally it gives the children self esteem, communication and awareness skills and a positive attitude. This programme caters for 400 kids from 15 pre-schools. After every three months we take the kids to Ster-Kinekor to watch a movie. 

The afternoon programme begins at 2:30 - 4:30. It covers a range of sporting activities and games such as soccer, table tennis, draughts, chess and volleyball. It caters for about 40 participants on a daily basis.

* Ballet Dancing

Ballet dancing is still part of our programme, which involves pre-school and primary pupils who are taught the basics of ballet dancing. 40 regulars were taking part.

One of the highlights of this programme is that the previous teacher from Alexandra who used to teach in Alex has been sent overseas to acquire more skills in this kind of dance form.

On 10th June 2004 the Ballet Dance Festival was held for Primary School children to show case their skills. About 300 children took part.

* Career Guidance

It takes place everyday from Monday to Friday. Here we advise students on subject choice and career choice. We also give them Rainbow Books so they can inform themselves on bursaries, scholarships and institution information and on where they can further their studies.

Our daily register reflects 150 people coming for different information ranging from bursaries, learnerships and career choices.

Every second week of the month we have different groups of students coming for career guidance. Students come from different high schools to fill in the career guidance questionnaires.

* Integrated Youth Work in Communities

The integrated work in communities is under the auspices of Technikon South Africa and was previously funded by the Royal Netherlands Embassy, but now is funded by the National Department of Social Development.

Every year different NGO's around the country support participants in this programme. Our two students spend two days at school and three days with the Alexsan Youth Desk in order to acquire practical skills. They spend 10 months studying towards a Certificate in Child and Youth Care. In each and every organization there is a mentor who oversees the progress they make while at the organization.

The course covers the following modules housing, education, employment, health, leisure time, environment, finance, justice and skills training. While they are working in Alex we try and give them exposure to the modules they are currently working on. For example: while studying health they also spent some time at the Alexandra Health Clinic.

* Career Guidance Day/Pace Career Centre

The career day was done in conjunction with the Pace Career Centre
Three career counselors were sent to run this career day. The following was covered:
1. Career planning
2. Identifying and selection of bursary and learnership programmes
3. Subject choice and their importance
4. Career choice and where to study

Brochures from five different tertiary institutions were distributed and it was well attended with 80 pupils from different high schools, from Grade 10 to 12.

* June 16 Celebrations

We were invited to be part of the celebrations at Number 3 Square run by Region 7 Department of Sports and Recreation, from the plenary until the day of the event. This was a Sports Day for the primary and high school children. Events included a marathon, football, netball, basketball, tennis and table tennis. The winners were given trophies and medals. Alexandra School Sports Association and ourselves were either officials or were in the local organising committee.

Back at the centre Ben Mhlongo organized the annual youth day arts and drama celebrations.

* Movies 

To keep young children from doing wrong things during school holidays like smoking, glue sniffing, hanging around the township doing nothing, we decided to keep them busy by playing movies to take them away from doing these kind of things.

Movies sometimes take place after school depending on the availability of the venue.

We play movies from 10 o'clock in the morning until 4 o' clock in the afternoon and some games like monopoly, scrabble, snakes & ladders and fingerboard.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Royal Netherlands Embassy for their most valued support in the past and for the opportunities they provided the youth of Alex. We would like to thank the City of Johannesburg for contributing towards our salaries and Little Champs and Cummins Corporation for donating the other half.

We wish both Abe Sechoaro and Herbert Milandzi all the best in their new careers and thank them for the time and effort they put in while still with us.

We would like to thank the Library for taking us under their wing and creating this new synergy where we can continue our work in a supportive environment.

Overview
National Facilitator And Centre Director - Holly Luton-Nel
Centre Usage And Activities - Ben Mhlongo
Alexsan Community Library - Sonny Mothopeng
Computer Training - Olgah Phenya
Alexsan Youth Desk - Prince Mafora
Alexsan/Life Line Counselling Centre - Iris Maliboho