Cultivating A New Breed Of Winemaker

The Pinotage Youth Development Academy (PYDA) was founded in 2012 to help talented, historically disadvantaged youth find employment in the wine sector and related industries.

Executive director Nikki Munro stresses that the PYDA is not actually a training academy.  “We’re a nonprofit organisation that grows talented young South Africans and launches them into employment. Our model works in demand-led sectors, but our programmes are deeper and longer. We believe the key to transforming the world is personal development and emotional intelligence.”

Munro says the seed for the academy was a meeting where she heard a story that’s still common today: young, high-potential people unable to access opportunities because of their historical – and current – circumstances.

The call was made to start the first academy programme in the wine sector not just because of its major economic status, but also because it historically has had the greatest barriers for the PYDA’s student contingent, and thus presented the best opportunity for change.

Stand for yourself

Munro and her colleagues’ initial research on the wine sector yielded some interesting insights. “Most people said they could teach technical skills. They needed young people who could own their lives, take responsibility and stand for themselves. We see this as emotional intelligence.”

They designed a programme that was 40 per cent industry-specific vocational training, 40 per cent personal development, and 20 per cent work experience. “Most of our students have never been exposed to the world of work and can’t access it because they are never the most skilled or experienced people in the room.”

The PYDA found that this model made graduates work-ready and enabled them to access jobs immediately. “They could hit the ground running, integrate and make things happen. The technical skills follow the personal development.” Munro adds that because the students live in poverty, they need a quick win. “Our programme used to last a year, but we reduced it to six months and found that was enough.”

So how do they identify candidates with strong potential? “We look for the readiness and willingness to change your life. That’s our primary criteria, along with the need for students to be matriculants.”

Employment uptake

More than 400 students have graduated from the academy in its decade of operation, with the vast majority going on to find gainful employment. “Until COVID-19, our uptake levels were 90 per cent, and they’ve remained close to that since the pandemic hit,” says Munro. “This is in wine and other sectors, including fast-moving consumer goods, fruit, digital marketing and tourism. Wine remains, however, our longest-running, flagship programme.”

A wine is born

One graduate who has gone on to great things is Ziyanda Njalo, who completed the programme when it was still one year in length, studying sommelier skills, viticulture, the winemaking process, labelling rules and more.

In February 2021, Njalo received a message about a collaboration between PYDA and Delheim to produce a new wine brand. “I was still looking for a good opportunity, so I applied and was selected to be part of the project.”

Delheim supplied the grapes, and together with eight other PYDA graduates, Njalo set about working with the estate’s winemaker Roelof Lotriet. “We harvested 30 crates of grapes, and Lotriet helped us follow the winemaking procedures,” she explains. “We learned about sales and marketing, label design, bottling and corking, and Delheim helped us create the brand name.”

The first batch of 230 limited-edition bottles of uLutsha Pinotage will be sold for R1 000 each. “It’s effectively a donation to support youth in winemaking, in exchange for an excellent bottle of wine,” says Njalo, who is passing on her knowledge to the next group of five graduates who have come on board. Her advice to prospective PYDA students is to “be your genuine self in interviews and grab every opportunity. Even when you face challenges, don’t give up. And know why you want to be part of the wine industry and the PYDA. You need real reasons. We at uLutsha see ourselves becoming employers one day”.