Skills key to empower our youth
Training guarantees job creation – a bedrock for achieving an inclusive economy
THE FIGURES are worrying – six million South African youth are neither employed nor receiving any training to acquire skills to get jobs. A potential future workforce faces a bleak future.
To begin with, unemployment for adults and youth in the country is at frighteningly high levels. Estimates put overall unemployment at about 27.2% and youth unemployment at 38.2%, meaning that one in every three young people in the labour force do not have a job. It’s a sad reality that needs addressing urgently for inclusive economic growth and social stability.
The National Development Plan implores all of us to double our efforts in working towards creating a society where poverty and inequality are a thing of the past by 2030 – just 11 years from now – and one of the core measures of a decent standard of living in that new society would be a decent job. To create such an equitable society, South Africa can ill afford to leave youth behind; they are the cornerstone of the future.
The crisis of youth unemployment, however, transcends our borders. The UN estimates that globally, young people are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults or they have to contend with poorly paid and unsustainable jobs at the lower end of the labour market. Women fare even worse: they are likely to be underemployed and underpaid in irregular employment. Doubtless, every country needs to roll up its sleeves to tackle the challenge of youth unemployment.
As a solution, the almost-universal consensus is offering young people an education and training underpinned by the imparting of skills to make them more employable. An education that prepares them for the future in which dizzying technological innovation is the norm.
But we cannot get to this promised land if the youth don’t receive an education that empowers them to succeed in a modern workplace. If they continue to struggle with understanding the rudiments of numeracy and literacy. That is why the Services Seta commissioned a Learner Tracer Study to test the impact of our training, absorption rate of our learners by the services sector.
As the Services Seta, we fund learning initiatives that help the young acquire quality skills for gainful employment in the services sector. The qualifications they get are a passport to better livelihoods. What’s more, through skills acquired, they can, whether immediately or later on, start their own businesses that can employ others, thereby becoming active agents themselves in breaking the cycle of unemployment.
The education that comes with such skills is offered through various intermediaries we fund. These offer training programmes that address particular skill shortages in the services sector. The programmes include learnerships, internships, apprenticeships, artisanal development, short skills programmes for various trades.
These learnerships are key to transforming communities. Just recently, the Services Seta celebrated the graduation of 50 learners from Eersterus, east of Tshwane. They had completed a year-long business administration course.
Challenged by a range of social ills, including crime, drugs and unemployment, the young graduates made their community proud by changing the trajectory of their lives through acquiring a sought-after skill.
As they stood beaming on stage, resplendent in their academic gowns, a large number of them had already received job offers days after finishing the course. That evening Eersterus was full of hope.
We have tons of such success stories. For example, in Kliptown, Soweto, we work closely with Kliptown Youth Program, a pioneering community organisation that empowers youth through education. These successes inspire us to continue in our skills development endeavours in the services sector to empower learners and, in turn, transforms communities.
Another effective conduit we use for skills development is partnering with Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges across the country. These colleges offer courses that are vocational or occupational by nature, meaning the student receives education and training with a view towards a specific job, employment or entrepreneurial possibilities. The diverse courses range from full qualifications to short courses, occupational and skills programmes, learnerships and various qualifications.
The Services Seta ensures that the training received is accredited by affiliate quality bodies such as the South African Qualification Authority and Quality Council for Trades and Occupations.
TVET colleges play a crucial role in addressing the country’s skills needs. In some rural areas, the Services Seta, working with various municipalities, tribal authorities and TVET colleges, took the initiative to set up skills development centres.
We do this because we strongly believe up-skilling youth is an investment guaranteed to pay dividends; it guarantees job creation, a bedrock of creating an inclusive economy.