CareerBox expands its footprint in Umlazi

Impact Sourcing innovator CareerBox Africa is expanding its offices in Umlazi, Durban, to cater to the demand for its workplace readiness training programmes for motivated young people who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

CareerBox identifies and recruits talented, underprivileged youth and women, providing career development training and work readiness programmes that equip them with high-demand technical and soft skills before placing them with corporate partners in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). Since it opened in 2013, CareerBox has positively impacted over 200,000 lives, with more than 60,000 people trained by the organization and placed into sustainable employment in the industry. The organisation now has branches in Johannesburg and Cape Town as well centres in Nairobi, Kenya, Accra in Ghana, Kigali, Rwanda and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

Creating accessibility for many

Recognising that for many unemployed young people residing in Umlazi, the cost of transport and distance from CareerBox’s head office in Umhlanga, Durban, is a barrier to access, CareerBox had already established a branch in Umlazi that not only offered on-site training and workplace readiness programmes, but also hosts a library that is open to the public, and access to internet-connected computers for members of the public to look for jobs and write and print CVs. Now, CareerBox is moving into a bigger space with larger training facilities to offer more upskilling opportunities to members of the Umlazi community.

“CareerBox has been running for more than 10 years, and we have made several meaningful discoveries in that time. The first is that Africa offers incredible talent that is comparable to any of the international markets we deal with. Our people are our greatest asset, with deep capabilities,” says CareerBox Managing Director Lizelle Strydom. 

“The second is that accessibility is key. You can offer the best training programme in the world, but if the people you are serving can’t get to that opportunity, it will come to nought. This is why we have carefully chosen our training facilities to be close to public transport options, and to the communities we serve. In Umlazi, KwaZulu Natal, we have chosen a facility where community members can directly access the resources they need to change their lives without having to pay for transport to another area,” explains Strydom. Impact sourcing represents 74% of CareerBox recruitment candidates, and 89% of its candidates were previously unemployed or earning below minimum wage, so location and ease of access is a crucial factor.

The BPO industry creates employment opportunities

The BPO industry is a key driver for economic growth and employment opportunities in South Africa. This is because most contact centre positions are entry-level positions. A willingness to learn, a positive outlook and strong communication skills are all more important than any tertiary training or previous experience for gaining access to the industry. Young people can enter the job market, gain valuable on-the-job knowledge and receive training while earning a full-time income, opening chances for advancement into supervisory and management positions. Some who start in an entry-level position in the industry also find their way into other careers within the industry, such as IT, HR, finance and other support services.  

The CareerBox metric for success is the successful placement of someone from its workplace readiness programme into permanent employment. The NGO carefully considers where it develops its learning centres to ensure that work opportunities are nearby. This strategy has paid dividends – about 90% of the people who complete the CareerBox workplace readiness programme are successfully placed into employment, and of those candidates, more than 80% are promoted after placement. Some of the organisation’s earlier placements now hold management positions in BPO organisations.

“Africa is filled with talented young people who simply haven’t had the opportunities to develop their skills. We have witnessed firsthand how so many capable and ambitious young people have managed to secure their first job after completing our workplace readiness training programmes, thereby securing not only their own futures, but uplifting their entire family in the process. We are excited to expand our operations in Umlazi and nurture the next generation of talent for the BPO industry,” says Strydom.