Twenty young unemployed residents have obtained their drivers licenses thanks to a skills development project by the DA-led Drakenstein municipality and private sector partners.
Focusing on rural youth, the project aims to assist candidates to pass their learners licenses and then provides driving instructors to help them obtain a driver’s license. The project, which started in 2019, saw 90 applicants start the process of which 43 passed the learner’s test and of those, 20 went on to obtain a driver’s license. Of the 20 successful candidates, 15 are female.
In 2020, 20 candidates enrolled of which 19 obtained a driver’s license that permits them to drive heavy duty vehicles (Code 10 license) and one candidate obtained a driver’s license that permits them to drive light motor vehicles (Code 08 license.)
Drakenstein Mayor Conrad Poole thanked all the role-players involved in the project for their role in affording young people an opportunity to compete for a job and be economically active. “Success is a beautiful thing, and your smiles here today mean the world to me, that’s all reward we need.”