Good Party leader Patricia de Lille recently paid a visit to Legends Barbershop Training and Development Academy and praised its innovative approach in tackling youth unemployment.
During her visit on Monday, she emphasised the importance of supporting small businesses and streamlining bureaucratic processes to empower aspiring entrepreneurs.
According to De Lille, coming from a poor background and having nothing should not dictate your future, and the barbershop founder, Sheldon Tatchell, serves as an example of how to alleviate South Africa’s suffering.
“If the state sharpened its support for small businesses and skills development, Legends demonstrated the kind of return it could expect on this investment.
“With centres across the country and expanding into southern Africa, the barbershop has trained over 1 100 individuals, offering professional barbering training free of charge.
“Trainees, including those at the Johannesburg centre, gain hands-on experience by completing 4 000 haircuts weekly as part of their training,” De Lille said.
According to Tatchell, he started the enterprise cutting hair outside his cousin’s internet cafe in Eldorado Park.
“The core focus of the academy is on upskilling youth in all aspects of the barbering industry, from cutting hair to running a business. Then we link them to existing opportunities or help them establish new ones. In this way, we create a community of barbers that contributes to addressing the high level of unemployment.
“Young people naturally make the best barbers and hairdressers because they remain on trend and have steady hands,” Tatchell added.
De Lille urged the government to provide financial support to small businesses and streamline bureaucratic processes hindering would-be entrepreneurs, and she also called for improvements in the efficiencies of Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) entities.
De Lille added that the government “must step up to the plate” by providing financial support to small businesses and eliminating red tape and other hurdles that confront would-be entrepreneurs.
The Star