Students from P&L Hardware Further Education and Training College received their hard-earned certificates at a ceremony held at the Cloud's End Hotel last Thursday.

The students, who are also employees of P&L Hardware, received their hard-earned certificates in Generic Management NQF Level 4. During the historic event, 47 students received their certificates. The programme was done in partnership with Wholesale & Retail SETA (W&R SETA).

According to the chief executive officer of P&L Hardware, Mr André Prinsloo, the students who received their certificates were recruited from the community and offered employment at P&L Hardware while completing the learnership. "I thanked the students for having completed the programme and not giving up. This shows how committed and dedicated you are," he told them.

Prinsloo urged the students to continue with the right attitude, so that they can succeed in life. "If you do not have the right attitude, hard work will be a burden to you. All good things you have achieved are because of your attitude," he added.

So far, the college has already trained 139 young people from various communities and offered them jobs. They were sitting at home without jobs or anything to keep themselves busy and P&L Hardware came to their rescure. "It has brought light into our lives. We do not know what would have happened in our lives without P&L Hardware," said one of the students, Aubrey Rambau.

Rambau, who is now one of the area managers at P&L Hardware, added that he benefited a lot from being a P&L Hardware student.

Currently, there are more than 3 million young people who are unemployed or not receiving any training. The director of private FET colleges in the office of the Minister of Higher Education, Dr Mandla Buthelezi, said P&L Hardware's efforts to enhance the employability of young people was commendable. "It is the intention of government to increase skills development and to create jobs," said Buthelezi.

The event was also attended by the CEO of W&R SETA, Mr Joel Dikgole, who said that his institution was happy about what P&L was doing and that they would continue funding the programme. "P&L Hardware has shown commitment in skills development. I believe that the students who graduated will go far in life. I am also happy that no one has dropped out  of the programme," he said.