Companies saying Yes can only benefit from it
Thami Mkhuzangwe
THE REFORMS, action and can-do attitude that have been the hallmark of South Africa’s newly-installed president have revived the nation’s belief that many of its biggest challenges can be tackled. It’s in this context that his backing of the Youth Employment Service (Yes) is one of the most significant.
Significant because of the potential to change the lives of hundreds of thousands of young South Africans. Significant because the programme is a concrete step toward addressing one the country’s most pressing socio-economic challenges.
And significant for the astute manner in which traditional rivals are being challenged to put aside their differences and work together toward a common goal.
It’s no secret that government, labour and business have been uncomfortable bedfellows since democracy was achieved. And despite numerous efforts to create a platform that can galvanise action and promote co-operation for the common good, results have been disappointing.
In backing Yes, the president has taken the first step towards a clear goal. One that demands total commitment from which any of the three economic partners dare not back away.
The aim of providing 1 million unemployed youth with work experience over three years might appear to be a tentative step toward reducing youth unemployment.
But its real power lies in creating a bridge between the disillusionment and despair of many of these youngsters, and the business sector that has felt the pressure of operating in a low-growth economy.
This has led to a crisis of confidence on both sides of an apparent chasm, which Yes could go a long way toward bridging.
Saying so is anything but the theoretical musings of an HR practitioner sitting in an ivory tower.
Over the past seven to 10 years we have experimented with, tweaked and refined three distinct programmes that closely resemble the aims of Yes.
With a workforce of more than 2 000 people, we understand the pressure to create meaningful jobs. And in our industry that means we need to attract and retain people with skills that are in many cases unique to our industry.
The first of these programmes is a traditional apprenticeship, which was formalised in 2008. Earlier efforts to attract and develop the skills of skilled workers went unrewarded because our programme lacked certain pillars that would support our aims.
The primary lesson from this initiative has been that these apprenticeship programmes need to be institutionalised, with clear training modules and interventions.
Most importantly, these programmes need engaged mentors able to guide and motivate the younger employees. They cannot work in a vacuum, nor removed from the skills development provided by accredited training institutions that understand a business’s skills needs and deficiencies.
In the decade since we transformed our apprenticeship programme, nearly 140 have been trained, 74 of whom are currently in the programme. More than 50 of the total number trained have been absorbed into the organisation in full-time positions.
Our newest intake will add 60 more to this programme in the coming year, with 20 of these being people with disabilities who will acquire administrative and similar skills.
While this programme has elements of an altruistic nature in wanting to provide skills and employment opportunities, the benefits to the business are far more practical.
By getting young people into the organisation early into their career helps us to inculcate our culture, promotes a sense of belonging and engenders a long-term commitment from both sides.
These principles are closely aligned to our philosophy of hiring people with the right attitude and potential. We can empower them with skills and exposure to the workplace, but in the absence of those values the entire premise of this relationship falls flat.
Lessons I would venture to say that this will be one of the biggest lessons that both employers and employees will gain from participating in Yes.
And this we have witnessed in our two other employment initiatives that are more directly aligned with the aims of this national youth employment programme.
The first of these is our learnership programme, which has been running for eight years. Nearly 200 unemployed youth who have at least a Grade 12 qualification, but no prior work experience, have participated in this.
For this, we developed in-house, Seta-accredited training programmes and capacity to develop skills specific to our industry.
Our most recent intervention, the Workplace Experiential Programme, most closely resembles the nature and objectives of the Yes programme.
The rationale of our initiative is precisely the same, with our executive management identifying the role Consol Glass could play – in some small way – to alleviating youth unemployment in communities near our operations.
We recognised that the company cannot grow and be sustainable in an environment racked with social instability.
To that end, we set about finding and recruiting young people in local communities who have some tertiary education qualification, but who had not been able to find employment.
Since 2010, we have, therefore, offered opportunities to these youngsters to gain experience in a discipline aligned with their qualification.
To date, we’re proud to have welcomed 44 of the 146 youngsters who took part in this programme as full-time staff members.
Armed with these success stories and experience, I predict that any companies that partner with government by taking part in Yes can only benefit.
Thami Mkhuzangwe is a human resources director at Consol Glass.