Potters House and Kyocera South Africa: 13 years of empowering our youth, and growing stronger
In partnership with Potters House Training Centre, a Soweto based vocational non-profit training provider, we recently celebrated the 13th Graduation of students with the theme in line with our Kyocera Philosophy: ‘To Pursue Unlimited Human Potential’.
As part of our commitment to empowering young South Africans through skills training, Kyocera Document Solutions South Africa has supported Potters House’s xerography training programme for 13 years, by providing equipment and consumables to train students in office automation equipment repair. On completion of the training program, students are able to enter the IT/office automation industry job market.
This year, 16 students graduated from the programme, adding their numbers to the approximately 240 students who have graduated previously.
We believe that practical, focused skills training is a viable way to secure employment, increase household income and thereby break the cycle of poverty in South Africa. Our long-term partnership with Potters House allows us to contribute towards the creation of practical skills that address skills shortages and result in the students landing jobs within the IT/office automation industry.
Graduates were told by the keynote speaker, Ian Dury, Business Support Manager at Kyocera Document Solutions South Africa that by graduating, they have taken the first step towards making today better than yesterday. He spoke about Kaizen, a Japanese term meaning small incremental changes that result in a big change over time. He shared his experience of how these small changes shaped his career journey and differentiated between how some changes were forced changes and others were a choice. He encouraged the attendees of the graduation ceremony by sharing his belief that if you stay the course through ‘untiring effort, quiet dedication and the humble pursuit of truth’ you can achieve undreamt of and unlimited heights. I think this is true for anyone , not only the graduates.
No matter how technical and automated the working world becomes, we will always need humans with practical skills to service and repair the machines.
Our long-term partnership with Potters House allows us to create jobs through the creation of practical skills and we look forward to many more graduations for many years to come.
Werner Engelbrecht - General Manager - KYOCERA Document Solutions South Africa
