The theme for World Youth Skills Day 2024 is "Youth Skills for Peace and Development," underscoring the crucial role young people play in peacebuilding and conflict resolution.
In 2014, the United Nations General Assembly declared 15 July as World Youth Skills Day to celebrate the importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship.
At Anglo American, we continued to focus on implementing proactive education programmes that deliver measurable impacts and outcomes tailored to the unique needs of young learners in each host community.
ICT Learnership Programmes
In collaboration with our IM department and CAPACITI, we designed a comprehensive information and communications technology (ICT) learnership programme consisting of nine months of in-class theoretical learning, followed by three months of practical exposure within the Anglo American IM department in Johannesburg.
This year, 10 learner apprentices successfully completed the 12-month NQF level 5 Systems Development Learnership Programme. All learners have graduated and are now placed on a 12-month YES programme across our site operations, supporting Group IM.
Additionally, 101 young people successfully graduated from the NQF level 4 Technical Support learnership programme, delivered by Summit Reach. This 12-month programme resulted in 40% of graduates being accepted into universities to study ICT-related qualifications, and 20% secured fixed-term employment.
“It is immensely empowering to be a member of the Anglo American Group IM and Girls ICT. Being surrounded by motivated, like-minded people who encourage one another feels fantastic,” said Elisa Ndou, ICT Learnership participant.
Achieve programme
In 2023, our Crop Nutrients business launched Achieve, an education programme for the UK.
The programme aims to help equip young people to achieve their potential, and to promote careers in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM). Achieve’s research-based, collaborative approach provides support both directly to young people, and to their schools.
2023 – Achieve programme in numbers:
“The Achieve programme has been imperative in raising the aspirations of our students whilst exposing them to incredible opportunities. It has helped develop their academic potential as well as promoting fundamental skills, challenge and resilience. We cannot thank the Achieve programme enough for the amazing impact and investment in our students’ futures. This is a programme that we have been crying out for, for many years now,” said one of the teachers involved in the programme at Scalby School, Scarborough.
Cybersecurity apprenticeship
At present, we have 13 apprentices participating in our two-year cybersecurity apprenticeship programme. Seven apprentices are taking their final exams and the other six, are nine months into their apprenticeship and work to support operations globally.
In June, three of our apprentices won accolades at the prestigious North Yorkshire Apprentice Awards. Paul Vitty won in two categories, Technology & Digital Apprentice of the year; and Higher Apprentice of the year. Harry King was highly commended in the Technology & Digital Apprentice category and Alfie Armitage was a finalist in the Higher Apprentice of the Year category.
Students related to our Modelo Pionero education initiative won first place in the Solutions for Climate Change Challenge run by the Metropolitan Technological University (UTEM) in Santiago.
The team was comprised of Paula Méndez, Francisca Peña and Constanza Acuña, students of the San Miguel de Colina Institute, together with their teacher Patricio Suazo, won the Challenge with their "Bags of Flavour" project.
Their solution to reduce single-use plastic, particularly those found in the packaging of noodles, rice and legumes, was to design a bag that contains non-perishable foods and that when dissolved in hot water produces flavour, or seasoning, for cooking.
In Chile, our Modelo Pionero programme covers schools in the Metropolitan and Valparaíso regions in 2023, situated near our Los Bronces, El Soldado, and Chagres sites. The initiative aims to benefit 65 schools, covering nearly 56,000 students, 2,500 teachers, and 200,000 community members by 2030.
In Brazil, we are aiming to support more than 8,500 learners and more than 100 teachers at 55 schools in the states of Minas Gerais and Goiás. Our programme in the country is aimed at addressing four major problems: low level of learning; unsuitable learning spaces; student physical and mental health and well-being; and lack of attractive subjects and classes.
Through a series of targeted interventions, we are working to improve teacher skills, create a more conducive environment for learning, increase digital literacy skills for both students and teachers, and ultimately improve learner performance.
