Since its inception, John Taolo Gaetsewe Developmental Trust retains education as the cornerstone of our existence. We deliberately sustain our own development goals and empower those willing to learn, align and prepare themselves for their contribution in closing the skills gap in a community still plagued by its historically disadvantaged status by creating a funnel of skills and expertise.

Our community trust strives to shift the archetypes by raising the standards of achievement in adults learning. The community-based lifelong learning opportunities incorporate literacy, numeracy and communications skills, working with others, problem-solving, and MICT Seta accredited information communications technology (ICT) courses. We have achieved a 90% completion record for all our bursary recipients by providing bursaries to higher learning institutions across SA.

Since the JTGD Trust’s establishment, education remains the one area of focus that constitutes the lion’s share of our project spend year on year. This is by no means a coincidence on the part of the Trust. The identification and awarding of bursaries to deserving students is a deliberate vision towards the Trust’s sustainability.

 The tireless community development efforts we plough back into our District will inevitably become the responsibility of some of the graduates and ultimately would be professionals that benefit from our bursary scheme and overall education and skills development initiatives. However, by no means is a myopic approach to the traction that education affords the many previously disadvantaged young people in our communities.

A learning opportunity also opens doors and worlds unimagined for our beneficiaries to stand a chance at global citizenship, even as children who grew up and thrived in rural communities on the African continent. In the 2015/16 financial year, the JTG district education and skills development programmes received the entire Public Benefits Activity (PBA) budget. From basic computer courses to niche qualifications at the most prestigious higher learning institutions across the country, we have amassed graduates in diverse industries such as Engineering, Law, Education, Information Technology, Health and Finance disciplines.

The Trust is also committed to further advancing these achievements by continually lobbying for graduates' employment if we as a Trust and the job market cannot absorb all of them. We continue to engage stakeholders in government and the private sector about lessening the countrywide scourge of graduate unemployment.

Our utmost desire is that each graduate, and even those who aspire to be part of our education and skills development program, know that the JTGD Trust places value in productive South African citizens to eradicate the cycle of poverty within families and communities. Our graduate statistics to date are as follows: (these do not include students who are currently enrolled at various institutions of learning across the country)

• Since 2004, the JTGD Trust provided bursaries to 299 University Students, of which 236 graduated, 38 were suspended due to poor academic performance and withdrawn, 25 students received funding from other Institutions.
• The JTGD Trust further funded 132 students at the Northern Cape Rural FET College in Kuruman & Kathu Campuses for Engineering and Business Studies.
• Since 2011, the Trust has been offering free Computer training for End-User Computing, and 1228 learners have been found competent.
• We funded 5 students with N2 and N3 to complete Trade Test Training for their desired trades.
• The JTGD Trust funded 59 Learners to acquire Drivers Licenses and 48 young people to acquire Learners Licenses. These were learners recruited from the Computer Programs implemented by the Human Resource Development Foundation