The socio-economic development and prosperity of our host communities is a priority for us at Anglo American. We support a number of global educational and career-oriented programmes to guide young people to build strong foundations for their future.
To mark the UN’s World Youth Skills Day that took place on 15 July, we are highlighting some of the great work taking place in this area around the world.
The Zimele programme empowers black entrepreneurs to start their own or grow their existing businesses and in 2018 it implemented its Youth Development Programme. This programme has helped place at least 119 youths in direct employment and 63 youths in an internship, and create 22 new businesses.
Another focus of the programme was on upskilling youths in the tourism and hospitality sectors. Established as a partnership with Summit, the programme has recruited about 490 youths in Mogalakwena, Kathu and Postmasburg to participate in a rigorous vocational training and mentorship programme that would allow them to take advantage of job opportunities available in the sector.
In addition to our youth development work through Zimele, we have an education programme that supports over 70,000 students across our host communities. This programme focuses on youth skills and education, including preparing them for post-secondary and entrepreneurship opportunities. Anglo American Education run various sprints throughout the year aimed at youth.
The current sprint (July - Dec 2022) is in partnership with Google that will see 150 youth provided with devices and trained up on ICT and digital skills that could lead to employability. These youth are mentored by Anglo American employees throughout the programme.
Our Crop Nutrients business in the UK is the headline sponsor of Scarborough’s Science and Engineering Week, which attracts 3500 young people wanting to find out more about a career in STEM areas.
They also fund a programme which promotes science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) careers and enriches the STEM curriculum in North Yorkshire and the Tees Valley.
Crop Nutrients is also in the process of developing a 10-year Woodsmith Education Programme which aims to equip disadvantaged students to achieve their full potential.
The Aprendices Pioneros programme in Chile links 200 students from VET (vocational education and training) every year with the world of business.
The programme guides the students in their future careers with a goal to add value to their economic environment. The students are mentored by Anglo American employees and need to deliver three projects each during the programme’s duration with the aim to select seven successful candidates to work for Anglo American.
The Crescer programme started in 2013 with a focus on the development of urban and rural entrepreneurship. In 2017, Anglo American and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) signed a USD $6 million agreement, covering Chile, Peru and Brazil to establish a new phase of the programme in 2020.
The project promotes economic diversification and the reduction of local dependence on the mining sector. Four value chains with economic potential are prioritised to promote economic diversification: milk and cheese, horticulture, honey production and tourism.
To strengthen the sustainability of impact across these value chains, the Project also incorporated a youth empowerment component to promote entrepreneurship and employment readiness for rural youth. A large indirect impact is also expected through strengthening of local public and private institutions that support these value chains.
In between 2017 to 2020, there were 320 young residents of rural areas trained in different areas of work, with 60% of those being female and seeing an average income increase of 76%.
In 2021, so far, 388 young people have completed the first cycle of online training, a format adopted since this year, due to the restrictions imposed by the COVID pandemic 19. And the second online cycle began in July with more than 600 young people enrolled.
