Youth job opportunities

The Gauteng government is revamping its popular Tshepo programme, the province’s premier David Makhura said this week.

The first iteration of this programme, Tshepo 500 000, was meant to bridge the gap between young people and the opportunities for them to earn a livelihood. It ran from 2014 to 2016 and reached 211 642 young people.

The Tshepo programme is, however, by no means the only initiative the Gauteng government has embarked on to alleviate the plight of youth unemployment.

Youth job opportunities fact box:

• Since 2019, 48177 youth work opportunities were created in Gauteng Provincial Government departments, against a target of 80337 to date (60% of target achieved), of which 45.6% were in the infrastructure sector.

• In Gauteng municipalities, 30 192 total youth work opportunities were created against of target of 85733 to date (35% of target), of which 34.2% were in the infrastructure sector.

• 19771 work opportunities were created through the National Youth Service.

• The Innovation Hub Management Company skills development programmes, Coachlab and Code Tribe, trained 286 youth to date. This training resulted in 114 youth finding employment (45 permanent and 69 temporary jobs). Since its inception, more than 773 youth have benefited from the programme.

• The province also trained 3339 unemployed youth in automotive skills, including 1217 female youth and 2 122 male youth, and 348 people have also been trained at the Gauteng Automotive Learning Centre.