Move to create jobs for youths
State outlines its ambitious plans
The government will establish four youth employment centres within existing labour centres over the medium-term expenditure framework to combat unemployment, with each centre estimated to cost R3m.
Finance minister Tito Mboweni made the announcement during his budget speech yesterday.
More than half of all young people in SA are unemployed, and of the 1.2-million youths who enter the labour market each year about two-thirds remain outside employment, education or training.
The centres will be equipped with free internet, CV-drafting facilities and selfhelp and assessment facilities, and will provide a mobile platform through which registered job-seekers can be matched to available job opportunities registered on the Employment Services of SA database.
Through the platform, those who require less intervention and job preparation could be fast-tracked for job opportunities, allowing job counsellors to focus on those who require more assistance and enhance their prospects of securing employment, according to the budget. The expenditure for this was in the work-seeker services sub-programme in the public employment services programme, it reads.
Youth unemployment, which focuses on people aged 15-24 years, is at 58.1%, up 3.4% on an annual basis, according to Stats SA’s quarterly labour force survey released earlier this month.
Mboweni said the government will reprioritise resources to raise spending on this critical area, and work would start immediately.
More details would be provided in the medium-term budget policy statement later this year.
“We intend to make this intervention a resounding success,” Mboweni said.
In his State of the Nation Address two weeks ago, President Cyril Ramaphosa said a presidential youth employment intervention, consisting of six priority actions over the next five years, will be implemented immediately.
The intervention will involve a youth employment initiative that will be funded by setting aside 1% of the budget. Ramaphosa said prototype sites for those pathways would be launched in five provinces to form the basis of a national network that will reach threemillion young people through multiple channels.
The way young people are prepared for work will be changed fundamentally, with shorter, more flexible courses being provided for specific skills that employers in fastgrowing sectors needed.
Ramaphosa said new and innovative ways to support youth entrepreneurship and self-employment were being developed, and the youth employment service would be scaled up. Technical and vocational education and training colleges and the private sector will be involved to ensure more learners received practical experience in the workplace to complete their training.
The National Youth Development Agency and the department of small business development will provide grant funding and business support to 1,000 young entrepreneurs in the next 100 days.
The government plans to assist 100,000 young entrepreneurs over the next three years to access business skills, training, funding and market facilitation.