A NPO is helping girls from Lavender Hill, Retreat and Cafda get ready for life after school.
The girls in Grade 11 and 12 are selected by NPO Great Girls to have sessions at the New World Foundation in Lavender Hill.
The modules include skills development, bridging school life and employment, applying for university, interview skills, basic budgeting and basic labour laws.
Some other things include how to ace a job interview, basic employment dos and don’ts and workplace communication.
The girls are paired with a mentor for two and a half years.
This year 50 girls will be participating in the sessions, which will be starting this Saturday.
Founder Kristina Miller said much of the information and skills taught through the modules are sorely lacking in current schooling and social settings.
“It is run by a diverse group of women that aims to bridge the gap between high-school education and full-time employment for disadvantaged girls. We volunteer our time and expertise with young women in these grades who are looking for support. Our goal is to ensure that South African girls leave high school equipped with the skills to either find meaningful full-time employment or to pursue further studies,” said Ms Miller.
“Our intake is every year during May and we partner with schools to recruit participants. There’s a very stringent selection process and all girls sign contracts. We always have more applications than we can take so we have to be selective,” she said.
The NPO presents at school and the girls then apply to be part of the programme.
“We don’t use academic performance as a measure only motivation to change their futures. We believe that every girl is capable of being great, but not every girl is given the opportunity to be as great as they truly can be – that’s where Great Girls comes in,” said Ms Miller.
For more information about the organisation, visit their Facebook page, their website http://www.greatgirls.co.za/ or email to greatgirlscapetown@gmail.com