The Training Academy Trust (TAT) is transforming lives and re-shaping destinies in rural South Africa where they have programmes. With branches in Johannesburg, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, and Kwa-Zulu Natal, the WDB Development Training Academy aims to assist in the alleviation of poverty in rural areas and peri-urban communities of South Africa by equipping women with the financial, economic and computer literacy skills they need to succeed as part of the forth-coming digital market. As much as possible the wording is in own language. Fikile Buthelezi and a stellar team and tenacious trainers create change and uplift impoverished communities one graduate (and one household) at a time. The ever-expanding WDB Development Training Academy is continually on the lookout for enterprising individuals to be trained as Development Facilitators and Development Assistants who enrich the skill sets, perspectives – and hence the career prospects – of their surrounding communities.
TAT students attend a week-long training session once a month for a year to obtain their accreditation. Among the many success stories of the TAT programme is that of Nomthandazo Mngadi, a proud post-graduate and champion of the programme. Here is her story.
Nomthandazo Mngadi hails from the little town of Taylor’s Halt, just outside of Pietermaritzburg in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Being a hard-worker, good with numbers and a people person she was a key candidate for a TAT course.
Nomthandazo first became aware of the Training Academy Trust from talk in her community and enrolled for a course in Basic Computer Literacy at the start of 2019. The Training Academy Trust offers training in computer literacy to students who have attempted to, or have obtained their matric certificate, are not currently enrolled in other tertiary education courses and are unemployed. In as little as twelve weeks Nomthandazo was able to obtain the knowledge that would usher her into the digital age and unlock the career prospects which would enrich her life going forward. Now, little more than a year later, Nomthandazo and her family have already begun to reap the rewards of her astute decision to take part in the TAT programme. A proud Nomthandazo tells of her success following the attaining of her certificate saying, “The course has improved my quality of life and my future economic prospects. After completing my studies, I was able to find a job using my Training Academy Trust certificate which will enable me to provide for my family and make strides within my chosen career path.”
The future outlook is bright for Nomthandazo and many others like her. Here the goal is to enrich and enhance the position of women within their families by exposing them to income-generating activities, thus improving their overall standing within the families, the community and, therefore, their socio-economic mobility as a whole.
As for Nomthandazo, this is not the end but, rather, the beginning of her story. Equipped with knowledge, a much-improved skill base and ‘the will to power’ and a rosier outlook on life, things can only get better as she moves from strength to strength in her chosen career path. Her future plans include a career in finance and economics. “Within the next five years I see myself beginning a career as an accountant”, she says. The attainment of valuable skills and practical knowledge within these fields can only further the upliftment and social mobility of her community as she takes the lessons she learns back to Taylor’s Halt with her. For a hard-worker like Nomthandazo, partnered with TAT and the WDB Development Training Academy the sky is the limit.
