Mission
To equip unemployed and out-of-school youth in Durban with the soft skills, digital skills and life-readiness they need to build a future for themselves, and to instil a lifelong habit of continuous learning.
About LookUp SA
OUR STORY STARTS
WITH A QUESTION
What happens to a young person when school ends and nothing else begins?
The meaning behind our name
Look to the sky
"Look Up" is an instruction and an invitation. It means lifting your eyes beyond what's in front of you. It means expanding your horizon, believing a bigger future is possible, and then doing the daily work to reach it.
Our logo carries that idea: two open hands holding up the letter U. It's what we try to do for every young person who walks through our doors. Hold them up, so they can reach further than they thought they could.
Our beginnings
How LookUp SA began
LookUp SA grew out of years of work in skills development. Through bconsult, a Durban-based skills development company, our founder Tracey McLennan worked closely with unemployed young people across KwaZulu-Natal. Again and again she saw the same thing: bright, capable young people who had quietly stopped expecting more from life.
It wasn't a lack of ability. It was a lack of access, to information, to tools, to people who could show them what was possible. Many had finished matric with no route into tertiary study. Others had left school early. Most had no computer at home, no one to check their CV, and no idea how to prepare for an interview.
LookUp SA was started to close that gap. Not with one programme or one qualification, but with a place to keep learning, a community that expects you to show up, and the practical skills that make the next step possible.
Who we serve
LookUp SA works with young people in and around Durban, especially from township and under-resourced communities, who:
- have finished matric but haven't gone on to further study or work
- left school before completing Grade 12
- are unemployed and looking for direction, skills or confidence
- want to keep learning, whatever their starting point
We also work alongside the people around them: parents and families, schools, employers, and organisations that want to invest in youth.
Vision
A society where every young person, regardless of where they started, has the tools, resources and self-belief to uplift their community and pursue meaningful work or self-employment.
What guides us
Our values
Aspiration.
We help young people raise their eyes and aim higher.
Access.
We open doors to information, facilities and mentors that others take for granted.
Dignity.
We treat every learner as capable, never as a charity case.
Self-drive.
We build ambition, and the discipline to act on it every day.
Community.
We grow role models who come back and lift the next person up.
Learning in practice
Our approach
Learning never ends.
A qualification is a starting point. We teach young people to keep learning long after any course is finished.
Skills you can use tomorrow.
Everything we teach is practical: a better CV this week, a stronger interview next week, a first client next month.
Showing up is a skill.
Discipline, punctuality and consistency are taught, practised and celebrated, because they open doors that talent alone can't.
Experience that supports opportunity
Part of the bconsult family
LookUp SA is an initiative of bconsult, a skills development partner with over 17 years in the industry. That relationship gives our young people access to experienced facilitators, an understanding of the qualifications landscape, and a clearer view of where today's skills lead. LookUp SA's own focus stays on the young person: their confidence, their habits and their next step.
Tracey McLennan
Tracey is the founder of bconsult and the driving force behind LookUp SA. Her belief that young people need both opportunity and encouragement shaped everything LookUp SA does.
We don't believe any young person is "too far behind". We believe they haven't been shown where to look yet.
See what we do