Training Is Phase One And Phase Two Is To Sub - Contract

Business, Ethics.

An interview on a fair trade jewelry model in south africa - laurens mare is ceo of the south african jewelry counsel. Through the nonprofit organization, Vukani - Ubuntu, you have created a wonderful model that trains economically disadvantaged people from townships into the jewelry trade.

The interview was conducted by Marc Choyt. - let' s start with what year you were founded and how many people are involved in your program now? That was not possible before. This started in 199I joined Demos Takoulas( current CEO) in late 199At that stage there was just one project - it was the first project of its kind in the country and the first entity to take gold legally into a township. We did a lot of ground breaking at that stage. Granted there has been some improvements since 199 Describe your structure.

Now, there are 37 structures around including various other projects based on the original Vukani model. - we set up a nonprofit organization, funded by government and private companies, that functions to fund as a training facility. From this central facility, we have smaller companies that function under it in the hive system. This training facility has everything it needs, from machinery to faculty, to bring students into the trade. Each of the little factories has access to the equipment from the larger factory, where more technical production elements can be assisted with. He is still linked to the main facility with its expertise, so he can grow his own clientele around himself.

In this environment, the rent of this small start up starts low and then grows as the business increases. - so, if i am understanding correctly, you take people into your training facility, teaching them the trade, while providing them all the support they need? Once he has grown to a sustainable level he has to leave the confines of the hive to make space for the next entrepreneur. Yes, and we nurture the businesses until they reach a certain size. He still retains the link to the central facility though. It is a very cooperative system that has QC in place to make sure that the product creates opportunity to grow business in this method and maintains the supporting infrastructure.

We also have set up a company which sells what is produced in this factory. - how do you transition them into real life bench experience? They understand the environment and the pressure - this is no ensure that they get first - hand experience of the real manufacturing environment. We do an exchange program going into the mass production factory in a mass production environment. Training is phase one and phase two is to sub - contract. A jeweler who has completed our program or is working with the program will costs it and send the cleaning and assembly to be done by the developing jewelers as an example.

For example, an order comes in for rings. - who gets to take part in your program? They go through test for drawing, mathematical skills and, hand eye coordination language ability. There is a limited amount of money, but anyone from the townships can apply. Based on the results, we select our top candidates - ten or twenty out of up to four hundred applicants. Unemployment is close to 40% in these townships.

But it depends - it can be one out of forty or one out of ten. - one of our trained workers can support 3 to 8 people off his income. Most of the learners receive a stipend as per the SA National regulations through the SETA' s( Sectoral Education& Training Authorities) . How are the students supported while they are in the program? They provide a list of minimum payments per level reached. The more they progress, the more they can produce so their income is finally self - generated.

In addition, the learners get the opportunity to assist in production and earn an additional income from that. - can you give me an example of what one of your piece workers makes, compared to the average person in a township? As an example a person specializing in cleaning castings can on average earn up to R 4000 per month with someone working for a salary at the same level earning R 1500 - R2 500 per month. This very much depends from person to person and which field in the industry they specialize in. How many small companies have started as a result of your program? You must remember that the average period of training for entry level is 3 - years.

Not that many, I would estimate+ - 10 or so that have gone on their own. - add to that the additional time spent building up something and we have only really been up and running for 7 years. That has been the hassle with us, to get sufficient market for the product. What has been your level of success with marketing the product? But we work with a private company. Eventually, once a jeweler is solid in his skills, he breaks away, as I said from us and starts his own company. As mentioned we have set up a hybrid situation, working with established jewelry manufacturers that have viable mass production capacities which utilize us as a resource.

They can still subcontract to the factory. - in the meantime, the money generated goes to development of training and the jeweler. In the process they are learning everything about the business. What have been the challenges? Keeping the central system functioning, paying the staff running the projects and assisting and training all these guys, to be able to do this, the gas for the car, for example. The problems has been in the operating costs.

That is the one place where we are low on funds. - please give me a list of what you can produce, and let me know how someone interested in supporting your project might go about working with you. Our support network does not want to fund our general administrative expenses. We will be able to produce just about anything you can find any ware else in the industry. Obviously not the kind of quality you would find in Tiffanies or the like, but reasonable mid range jewelery.