Sentech offers three learnerships that are claimed to be integral to the telecommunication industry, and to equip candidates for the realities of the employment market.

The learnerships, system support desk top and telecommunications technician, are at NQF 5, while IT technical support is an NQF 4 programme. They are made up of a three-month theoretical portion and a nine-month practical, where learners are stationed around the country at transmission control centres, where their skills can be most effectively utilised.

The certificate courses, which include customer management, sales and marketing and business accounting, both at NQF 5, provide an 11-month practical portion with one month of theory. During the learnership and certificate programmes learners are exposed to all areas of the business, including marketing, sales and finance.

Applicants who apply, usually in response to advertisements in science and technology publications, must have an N6 or S4 in telecommunications, and are interviewed to ensure they meet with the selection criteria. Disabled candidates are actively sourced from relevant organisations to ensure the disabled component for skills development is met.

In the previous intake for the programmes there was a female majority, with 82% PDI and four per cent disabled. For the current telecommunications technician learnership programme, there is an equal proportion of male and female learners.  10% of which are white.

There is a perception that learnerships are for blacks only. This is not so, and we urge white candidates to apply for learnerships as Sentech is determined to maintain properly balanced equity profiles, with a 15% component of white employees, says Patricia Roper, HR manager, Sentech.