The old adage about teaching a man to fish birthed a new training centre in Town Centre.
The Al Fidaa Foundation took over the previously vacant second floor of the Town Centre Mosque complex and built a skills centre, which will provide training in patisserie design, culinary skills, sewing and computer studies.
Shafiek Baboo, the Town Centre Mosque (TCM) Skill Centre’s project manager, said Al Fidaa’s idea for skills centres were born out of the foundation’s feeding schemes, the first of which was opened in Gqeberha in 2008.
Since then the foundation has expanded to open the same model in Pretoria, Durban, Johannesburg, Pietermaritzburg and most recently in Mitchell’s Plain, with a feeding scheme in Tafelsig and the skills centre in Town Centre.
“In a roundabout way, they came to the conclusion that rather than giving people food, give them the skills to create a continuous source of income,” Baboo explained.
The feeding scheme provides food parcels in Tafelsig twice a month, but in October last year Al Fidaa also took over the “empty shell” second floor space attached to the mosque and renovated it into the skills centre.
Unemployed people between the ages of 18 and 35 years can register online for the courses, and a matric certificate is not necessary. The courses include a month-long patisserie design course, a four-month culinary course, a six-month sewing course or a month-long computer course.
As part of the courses, the students are also taught basic business skills.
‘Entrepreneurial mindset’
“Besides giving them skills to find employment, we want to give them skills to become entrepreneurs. A lot of people don’t know about costing, so they would buy the most expensive ingredients, bake a cake and then wonder, ‘Why do I only have R10 profit’?” Baboo explained.
Half of the products the students make they are encouraged to sell, “to get them into an entrepreneurial mindset”, Baboo said.
The money they make from selling their products is then collected to build starter capital for when the course ends. The best students are also put in contact with professionals in the industry for inservice training.
“We incentivise it in that way so that they will put in the best effort,” Baboo said.
While the baking and cooking courses are not accredited, the cooking course is done in conjunction with the South African Chef Board Association and both courses follow industry best practice.
“We focus a lot on the business part of being a chef and working in the kitchen and health and safety and environmental cleanliness in the workspace,” Baboo said.
The only cost to participants is a R250 registration fee, which the students are allowed to pay off.
“R250 is a lot for some people,” Baboo said.
There is also an additional cost for the sewing course, Baboo said, because students need to bring their own fabric. However, all the garments they make during training they keep. The sewing course is also the only course that is accredited.
The centre is funded through sponsorships and private donors, “which we are always constantly looking for”, Baboo said.
“Anybody who has the same vision as us and aligns with our goals, they can get in touch with me, with regards to sponsorship.”
You can contact Baboo at shafiek@alfidaa.co.za. To register for the courses visit register.alfidaa.co.za
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