It’s great to hear good news

More than 400 deaf and hearing-impaired people across the country have found employment within the Shoprite Group, thanks to the retailer’s Decade of the Deaf Project in partnership with Employ and Empower Deaf (eDeaf) over the past six years.

The aim is to provide jobs for 1 000 deaf students within a 10-year period.

The Group, in partnership with eDeaf and the Wholesale and Retail Seta, started this initiative in 2009 and have recently expanded it to the Eastern Cape.

Deaf candidates are taught 13 skills programmes as part of a one-year learnership in a National Certificate: Whole- sale and Retail Operations National Qualifications Framework (NQF) level 2.

The group also has a coaching capacity-building programme in which deaf employees from previous intakes are trained to coach the new intake of deaf pupils and all stores are sensitised to communicating with deaf staff members.

The Shoprite Group was the first long-term invested employer in the retail sector to offer this qualification to deaf and hearing-impaired pupils. Those who qualify are guaranteed employment within the group following a competency evaluation. Training is conducted by a specialised team of deaf facilitators and pupils are taught in South African sign language.