From Unemployment to Innovation

by marketing | Nov 18, 2025 | blog, COVID19, News @ ORT, Old News

Thembeka always loved the ocean. After completing her Master’s degree in Marine Biology, she stepped into the world expecting to build a career in her field. Instead, she ran into a harsh reality: there were simply no jobs. Like many young South Africans, she found herself qualified, motivated, and shut out of a labour market that can’t absorb the talent it produces.

Instead of giving up, she looked for another route. Drawing on her marine biology background, she explored the idea of using fish waste as fertiliser. That spark of an idea showed promise, but running a business demands more than technical expertise. It requires strategy, networks, and a different kind of resilience.

That’s when Thembeka joined the ORT–AEDF New Business Venture Programme. There, she gained the business skills she needed to turn potential into action. She applied for a WWF tender supporting coastal communities with oyster cultivation and won it. That success gave her the confidence to go further, and she soon submitted a tender to the United Nations to help communities develop marine-based solutions. Today, Thembeka is working closely with the UN as she grows a business built not on fantasy, but on purpose, and commitment to her community.

Her story speaks to a wider truth about youth in South Africa. Unemployment is at crisis levels, and the traditional job market is no longer keeping pace. Most young entrepreneurs aren’t chasing Silicon Valley dreams. They’re trying to build something that allows them, and their families, to survive.

This is the real face of entrepreneurship in South Africa: not driven by wealth, but by need. And yet, within that struggle lies opportunity. Entrepreneurship is one of the few pathways that puts agency back in the hands of individuals. To unlock it, we need a mindset shift, from ‘job seeker’ to ‘value creator’.

That shift must start in our schools. For decades, our education system has trained learners to follow instructions and pass exams. But the future demands something different: problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, and adaptability. ORT SA works directly with schools to help learners build these skills. We teach them to innovate, to experiment, and to see challenges as opportunities, not roadblocks. Coding, financial literacy, and digital competency should not be optional extras, they should be embedded in the curriculum.

We also need to rethink the messages we give our youth. Instead of saying go find a job, we should be asking: what problem can you solve? What do people in your community complain about? What’s broken, missing, or in demand? That’s where a business begins.

And it doesn’t require a million-rand loan or a 50-page business plan. Sometimes all you need is R100, one customer, and a community willing to give feedback.

Take Nohlonolo, who started with nothing and built a line of branded handbags using 100% recyclable materials. Today, her products are stocked in shops in Stellenbosch, proof that small ideas can grow into powerful stories of change.

Don’t wait for perfect conditions. Start small. Start imperfect. But start, because the future won’t be built by those waiting for opportunities, it will be built by those creating them.

The Promise of Leadership

by marketing | Nov 10, 2025 | blog, COVID19, News @ ORT, Old News

Our community recently celebrated the Investec Jewish Achievers Awards. It’s an energetic, high-profile event that puts a spotlight on leadership. But it also forces us to ask: what is leadership, really?

After being nominated in the categories of Business Leadership and Woman in Leadership, I didn’t walk away with a trophy, but I did walk away with something lasting: perspective.

Going through the process, the forms, the panels, the questions, forced me to slow down and reflect on what leadership really means, beyond the spotlight and the title.

I realised leadership isn’t a glamorous title or a dazzling role. Most days, I stare at a problem, a budget, an overpriced resource, or a challenging project that’s deviating off its original plan, and just say, “Okay, now what?”

It’s the hard calls that rarely make headlines; telling a school we can’t supply computers because they haven’t met project requirements. It’s explaining to funders why the robotics kits cost more than planned, or sitting with a staff member and giving feedback that’s uncomfortable but necessary.

It’s acknowledging the realities we face: that some young people turn down opportunities because they expect stipends, not seeing that our programmes offer far greater long-term opportunity than a short-term pay check. It’s continuing to show up anyway, believing that with the right exposure, mentorship, and persistence, lives can change.

Most of all, leadership isn’t about having the right answers. Often, it’s about asking the hard questions. The most difficult one is always: “How do I keep my promise to our mission and our calling?”
Leadership is about keeping a promise- a promise to South Africa’s youth and communities.

It’s a promise that a young girl in a rural school can discover she loves coding, and all she needed was a computer and the chance to learn.

It’s a promise to the talented young men and women who can’t find a job despite all their certificates, degrees, and diplomas. It’s the promise that we will build the bridge to take them from unemployment to a real career.

And it’s the promise to the small business owner, just trying to build a life of dignity, that they won’t have to do it alone, that we will provide the support, mentorship, and network to help them succeed.

Leading ORT SA has been my way to keep that promise. It’s my personal mission to connect opportunity with potential across South Africa’s diverse communities.

Leadership, I’ve learned, isn’t about standing at the front. It’s about standing with people, in uncertainty, in hard decisions, in the work that doesn’t make headlines. It’s about staying committed when it’s complicated and finding a way forward; it’s about the daily “now what?” It’s the hard “no” and the hopeful “yes.” It’s the messy, difficult, and deeply rewarding process of turning a promise into a reality.
That is what truly matters, not the title but our work, one kept promise at a time.

Breaking Barriers: Grade 6 Innovator Wins Silver at Eskom Expo

by marketing | Aug 29, 2025 | blog, COVID19, News @ ORT, Old News

This Women’s Month, we celebrate the brilliance, determination, and potential of young girls who are shaping the future of science and technology.

Meet Sheila Mawelele, a remarkable Grade 6 learner from Rebonwe Primary School, whose passion for innovation has already begun to shine on prestigious platforms. Sheila proudly represented her school at the 2025 Eskom Expo for Young Scientists – Regional Round, held at Wits University. Competing alongside top learners from leading schools, Sheila impressed the judges with her confidence, creativity, and scientific excellence.
Her achievement? A Silver Medal and Certificate of Achievement – a testament to her hard work and a symbol of what’s possible when talent is nurtured with opportunity.

Sheila’s journey is a proud moment not only for Rebonwe Primary School (one of our ORT SA Coding & Robotics program alumni schools), but for her entire township community.
As we honour women across the nation this August, we salute young achievers like Sheila who are boldly stepping into the future — one innovation at a time.