Corporate social investment
UCS Group established the UCS Foundation to drive its corporate social investment (CSI) initiatives. In line with the developments within the ICT Charter & Scorecard, the UCS Foundation has defined its scope to focus on CSI programmes and projects.
In principle the UCS Foundation will direct 75 percent of CSI funding towards skills development based on learnerships and educational bursaries. The balance of CSIfunding will be allocated to community development projects.
The UCS Foundation’s flagship CSI programmes will continue to be designed & implemented in ways that contribute to external ICT skill development and related entrepreneurial opportunities where viable.
Corporate Citizenship and Employment Equity
UCS Group recognises that good corporate citizenship pays long-term dividends in goodwill from the community and in social upliftment for the benefit of the whole society in which it operates.
The Group has established a Corporate Citizenship programme, which gives the Group a practical framework to help previously disadvantaged people and communities from active participation in the economy and from the Group’s investments in upliftment projects.
The programme takes an inclusive, integrated approach, making use of the skills and vision of executive management teams at both Group and subsidiary level to identify and implement Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) initiatives that support transformation.
At an operational level, Group companies are committed to appointing BEE organisations as business partners and resellers and to assist these partners with skills development and the transfer of knowledge.
UCS Group is committed to addressing and exceeding the requirements of the Employment Equity Act, the Skills Development Act and the Skills Development Levies Act. The Group subscribes to legislative adherence, as well as other more progressive objectives through the implementation of structured human resource policies, strategies and activities.
The Group remains committed to supporting social and workplace transformation in a free and democratic South Africa. Attention is focused on training and development with particular emphasis on people from previously disadvantaged communities.
The Group requires all its subsidiaries to comply with employment equity legislation and submit and implement their respective plans at individual Company level.
UCS Foundation Related Initiatives
Dream Team Cyclists
The UCS Group sponsors a group of cyclists coordinated by Marcello Pompa, accounts manager of Relyant Software Development team and a cyclist himself.
In November 2003 twenty-five cyclists participated in the 94.7 Cycle challenge. The “Dream Team” could be singled out by the UCS logo’s they wore. If each member cycled a second lap the proceeds would go to the children’s charity Reach for a Dream (RFAD).
The team has completed the cycle challenge once before and the Argus Cycle tour twice. Proceeds from the Argus Cycle Tour go to the Johannesburg Association for The Aged (JAFTA). The UCS Group has been an active sponsor of all four rides that have taken place.
Basic Computer Skills Training
Elliot Mokoena from the Training Department of UCS Software - Branch Division runs two 3 hour Basic Computer Skills classes for 10 learners every Saturday for 4 weeks (12 hours of instructed learning). These morning classes start at 08:30 to 11:30 and 12:00 to 15:00 facilitated by four Branch Software employees who volunteer their time. On completion of training, learners are tested to prove their competency. Successful learners are issued certificates of competency and those that do not make it are given an opportunity to attend classes again.
This program covers the basics including: Introduction to computers, MS Windows 98, MS Word, MS Excel, MS Outlook and the Internet.
The aim is to offer the classes to Diversity Factory members and Clubhouse mentors to certify computer skills they already have or acquire new skills.
Flagship CSI Projects
Youth Development Trust
Ntutule Tshenye, CEO of the Youth Development trust hopes to deal more directly with the key challenges facing the youth in South Africa. In his role as CEO the organization, Ntutule focuses his energies on addressing the pressing challenges of youth unemployment and neglect of the out-of-school youth, whom are seen as the “lost generation”.
Within the YDT is the Business Development Unit (BDU), the Investment arm of YDT. The BDU seeks to form strategic partnerships with Corporates and Enterprise Funding Organizations in order to facilitate, enhance and support the development of sustainable Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through needs-driven interventions. This is where funding for the Computer Clubhouses in Johannesburg is generated from.
The Johannesburg Intel Computer clubhouse
The Johannesburg Intel Computer clubhouse project began ten years ago in Boston (USA) resulting from learning research conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The concept spread and there are now more than 96 Clubhouses in more than 17 countries around the world including the US, Germany, Israel, Colombia, Holland and the Philippines. The Computer Clubhouse is a project of the Museum of Science, Boston, in collaboration with the MIT Media Laboratory.
In October 2002, Intel launched its first Computer Clubhouse in South Africa. Hosted by the Youth Development Trust, located in Johnnesburg CBD in Newtown. The Southern Africa Association of Youth Clubs (SAAYC), under the auspices of YDT, hosts the other two clubhouses at Etwatwa in an informal settlement east of Johannesburg and another in Phefeni, Soweto, launched in November 2003.
The Computer Clubhouse provides a creative and safe after-school learning environment where young people from under-served communities work with adult mentors to explore their own ideas, develop skills, and build confidence in themselves through the use of technology.
