Providing internships to previous Girls/Boys Town residents as part of the 702 Sun International CEO SleepOut sponsorship
By Staff Writer
MiX Telematics announced on Friday an extension of their 702 Sun International CEO SleepOut participation – that they will provide five, 90 day internships to previous Girls/Boys Town residents.
“Unemployment in South Africa reached a 12 year high in the first quarter of 2015, at 26.4%, with the combined youth and young adult unemployment rate at 39.9%2. This is a scary reality and I believe that the lack of skills locally plays a significant role in driving up these stats,” says Brendan Horan, MD at MiX Telematics, says.
“It is up to us as corporate South Africa, to start really improving ways in which we can develop individuals to gain tangible experience in the workplace and to ensure that they have something to bring to the workforce as a means to further bolster quality skills and increase employment.”
MiX Telematics will work with Boys/Girls Town to develop the necessary internship programme and select the correct individuals to take part in the 3 month programme. To this end, the company will discuss areas of interest with the successful applicants and will place them within the business division that is of most interest to their career path. This can be, but not limited, technical support, marketing, product development and much more.
“Our continued commitment to providing support to not only South Africa’s youth, but particularly to underprivileged youth (40%3 of children live in the poorest of households), led us to offer these five internships and we believe that this is a great way in which we are able to give back to the larger community as well as – very importantly – to the technology sector in which we operate,” says Horan.
Horan also took place in last night’s 702 Sun International CEO SleepOut, having raised an additional R120 490.00 towards the initiative – as a result of his passion for the cause, strong outreach to his professional network and a call out to MiX Telematics staff to also get involved.
“I am so proud that as a business we took on the challenge this year to take part in the 702 Sun International CEO SleepOut as not only did it offer us an opportunity to be involved in a worthy cause and raise money towards the less privileged, but so too were we able to come up with a great way in which to extend this sponsorship – really giving back in a way that is sustainable and very much needed in South Africa,” says Horan.
