Linking the jobless to jobs
YOUTH EMPLOYMENT ACCELERATOR: HARAMBEE HELPS TOWNSHIP POOR GET IN THE DOOR
‘It’s just lack of information that makes people think there’s nothing out there.’
Afew years ago, Thabo Ngwato’s job prospects looked bleak. After finishing high school, he started studying at the University of Johannesburg, but had to drop out when his mother retired and cash was short.
For a year-and-a-half he hung around his home in a poor township in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, playing football and occasionally applying for jobs in town. He got no responses. No surprise in a country with one of the most persistently high youth unemployment rates in the world.
In South Africa, a record 5.5 million young people are searching for work unsuccessfully, many living in slums far from big employers.
But one day a friend told Ngwato that he had found a job through Harambee, a youth employment accelerator that links talent-hungry businesses with promising, poor kids.
“The best description I’ve heard is that we’re a dating service and a finishing school,” said Lebo Nke, an executive at the Johannesburg-based social enterprise, which has helped more than 50 000 youths find work since 2011, including Ngwato.
For the past two years, the 23-year-old has worked at a Johannesburg call centre, earning enough to support his mother and nephew. He recently bought his first car so he doesn’t have to take three mini-buses to get to work anymore.
“I know how to network and look for employment. These skills I can take anywhere,” he said.
Globally, SA has one of the highest unemployment rates at 26%, a figure that has steadily increased over much of the last decade. One in three aged 15 to 24 are not employed, studying or in any kind of training, according to 2018 figures from Statistics South Africa.
The reasons include high dropout rates from educational institutions, slow economic growth, black empowerment schemes that have benefitted only a few and poor leadership by former president Jacob Zuma, who resigned in February facing corruption charges. The legacy of apartheid plays a central role too. Many poor people still live in townships far from urban centres and have limited access to cheap public transport. They have few prospects of finding jobs they can get to daily, or teaching their children how to get employed. “It’s the geography part that’s often missed,” said Jak Koseff, head of Tshepo 1 Million, a youth jobs push run by Gauteng province. “It’s at the heart of the problem.”
To change that, Harambee sends recruiters, called “feet on the streets”, into townships to collect the contact details of young people hoping to get jobs. Some are invited to Harambee offices for a day to gauge their interests and skills, test their analytical ability and help them create an e-mail account and CV.
Harambee also offers advice on how to dress for a job interview and what questions they might be asked. Those without interview clothes can pick up an outfit free. Young people who show promise get vocational training once a specific opportunity is identified.
“They teach you things like how to manage if you get a difficult boss,” said Ayanda Figlan, 25, who is on the training programme. “Someone might offend you, but you can’t fight with them or cry.”
Candidates go for an interview when one of the 425 businesses Harambee partners with, ranging from Nando’s restaurants to Microsoft and Standard Bank, are looking for chicken-grillers or a front-desk clerk, Nke said. Matches depend not just on an applicant’s aptitude and skills, but also how far they live from the workplace. “You have to consider the cost of maintaining the job,” Koseff said.
Employers pay a share of Harambee’s costs to prepare a candidate if they hire one from them. A big pool of well-coached applicants has helped them increase workplace diversity and find staff who stay, they said.
Cathy Kalamaras, managing executive for people at Webhelp SA, the call centre where Ngwato works, said on average more than 60% of call-centre staff quit before two years, but the two-year retention rate with Harambee workers is 97%.
“They’re willing. They’re hungry. Some are the main breadwinners of the family,” she said. “What I love about sourcing from Harambee is that they come with that motivational factor.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa, has pushed companies to put 1.5% of after-tax profits into funding year-long paid work experiences for unemployed youth. The Youth Employment Service aims to give a million jobless youths work experience in the next three years.
Ngwato now advises his peers on how to find jobs. “It’s just lack of information that makes people think there’s nothing out there.” – Reuters
I know how to network and look for employment