The Ikusasa School of Cooking has been awarded the BHP Billiton’s Achiever Award in the category - Outstanding Contribution to Skills Development in Tourism.
The Achiever Awards were presented by Achiever magazine at the Skills Development Summit held at the CSIR offices in Pretoria on 6 and 7 September.
"At a time when the shortage of skills has reached almost crisis proportions in a number of areas of the national economy, now more than ever, those who are making a difference by providing South Africa with the necessary skills must be recognised for their leadership and applauded for their efforts," says BHP Billiton Awards director Dylan James.
Judges for the Achiever Awards included Percy Mokate, deputy director-general: skills development at the Department of Higher Education and Training, Hlonela Lupuwan, CEO of The Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA), Thabo Mashongoane, executive manager: NSA Secretariat, Kganki Matabane, director of transformation policy at BUSA, Professor Solly Malefu Mollo, director-general of The Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy and Ursual Thy, human resources executive at PDNA.
The Ikusasa School of Cooking is a charity organisation that opened in January 2010 and each year offers ten disadvantaged school-leavers the opportunity to learn valuable and in-depth culinary skills in an intensive one-year programme. The Ikusasa students come from children's homes or impoverished families in and around the Durban area and are not in a position to finance tertiary studies.
Ikusasa is a City and Guilds-based skills programme, which is fully administered by The International Hotel School (IHS). This programme not only provides the students with the necessary theory and practical experience to work in the hospitality industry, but also with the strong likelihood that they will be placed in jobs upon completion of their course.
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