We have some strongly held beliefs on the state of the economy and what needs to be done to give S.African youth a pathway to earning enough money to look after their family.
Discussions around job creation should be about both quantity and quality. Minimum wage jobs cannot provide for families, and the economy can only prosper if we increase productivity as well as the number of basic jobs.
There is a huge band of highly capable youth left out of tertiary education who if given the right opportunity have everything in them to have a really large impact on their workplaces and as a result on the country.
This lost opportunity is even more tragic when you consider the significant resources the government is spending on trying to support the youth, with limited success.
The crazy part is that when this energy is correctly unleashed, businesses will reap significant benefits. Study after study reinforces that customers will shift to companies who have engaged employees and invest in their staff.
Your ability to do stuff is what gets you to earn more in your career, not what test you have passed or what qualification you have earned.
Retail is a great sector to focus on because it will continue to require entry-level employees for the foreseeable future
What we have been creating
The Maker Movement creates a space where high-potential youth can confidently run small businesses in 3-4 years. We have developed our model at BGR, a burger restaurant in Rosebank. The store is run by a team of 12 young future leaders (we hire from Harambee). We are expanding to a second location in the next couple of weeks, where our first graduate Wam is about to open his own store.
Our model is built on the following pillars that we have been developing
A 24-month learning framework that develops job seekers into managers and sets them on the path to owning their own businesses
Employment contracts with clear learning milestones
Environment wired for continuous coaching and feedback. Including performance tracking reviews every month
Workplace curriculum that expects participants to translate theory into actual business results, with space for learning and failure
Values-based approach to performance that shifts the focus from “having a job” to a culture of growth where peer coaching, feedback, and accountability are expected
A trade mark that customers can use to identify businesses that support the growth of their teams
A funding model that lowers the capital costs, allowing us to support and promote those young leaders into a position where they eventually become owners themselves
The past five years have given us enough data and experiences to confirm we are on the right track and that we make a real difference to both our talent and the underlying businesses.
It also has allowed us to develop a framework for what it takes to build business leaders in the first 1-2 years of their first careers:
Taking on real responsibilities and accountabilities in a business is the best way to develop ability, not learning theory
In order to do learn, one has to confront failure
Young adults develop ability at their own pace so are more successful if they can follow an individual learning path
High performers have to practice how to lead teams and make decisions under pressure
Young adults learn by following what their peers in the workplace are role modeling
Developing soft skills is as important as learning hard skills and functions
Why retail?
Retail has a wretched reputation because of deep orthodoxies held in this country. Front line workers are treated as cogs in the machine. These low expectations are reflected in the wages and working conditions. This is a lost opportunity because retail is such a well contained environment with lessons that can be applied in any business: Profitability is easily seen, there are established systems rich in data, a variety of different skills with different levels of complexity are needed, there are constant opportunities to solve problems that customers experience and success can only be achieved by becoming a leader that can motivate their team.
The challenges we need to solve to scale
If we are going to be able to make a dent in the problem we need to build partnerships with people and companies committed to exploring solutions beyond what is on offer right now. For the Maker Movement, solving any of our current barriers will help us scale.
Improving Talent Sourcing: We currently use and love Harambee, but it would be great to develop partnerships that have more direct relationships with candidates
Increasing Awareness within the Retail Sector: Getting our approach into more businesses that want to deliver better customer experiences
Communicating our story: Support in telling our "Potential into Performance" message to consumers, industry, government, and interested funders
Refine our Pedagogy: Finding a like-minded community that wants to build a learning system that becomes THE benchmark for developing low-skilled, high-talent S. African employees
Developing a pipeline beyond our programme: Providing our graduates with access to further job opportunities with businesses that want to employ them and further their growth
Formalise our approach: Aligning our programme with SAQA requirements so that we can access funding more easily
We don't necessarily know where the end destination of the journey we are on is. We are constantly learning and are committed to always getting better at what we do. We know that building partnerships and sharing our experiences will help move our economy in a different direction, unlocking all of its potential.
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