Creating work and opportunities for young people

Dear Fellow South African,

Yesterday we observed Youth Day in tribute to the generations of young people who continue to inspire our ongoing pursuit for social justice, equality and opportunity for all.

If we are to live up to the democratic promise for which so many sacrificed and gave their lives, we have to ensure that we invest in today’s generation of young people and unleash their potential.

Like many parts of the world, our country is grappling with high youth unemployment. To overcome this challenge we need an approach that includes investing in education and skills development, fostering youth entrepreneurship and implementing targeted employment programmes focusing on young people.

As part of this work, Government established the Presidential Employment Stimulus and the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention. These initiatives are providing opportunities to hundreds of thousands of young people at a time when not enough jobs are being created to absorb new entrants into the labour market.

Since it began in 2020, the Presidential Employment Stimulus has provided more than two million jobs and livelihood opportunities. Of the participants in the programme to date, 72% are young people and 66% are women.

A vital part of our efforts to empower young people is the SAYouth.mobi platform, which is a single point for unemployed young South Africans to access opportunities for work, training and learning.

There are now over 4.7 million young people registered on the SAYouth platform and the Department of Employment and Labour’s employment services database. Through these platforms, young people have been supported to access over 1.6 million earning opportunities.

Last week in the City of Tshwane, I met with a number of young people who told me excitedly they had been approached by potential employers who had seen their profiles on SA Youth.mobi.

I want to encourage young job-seekers to utilise this trusted recruitment platform – at https://sayouth.mobi/

Registration is free and the app is zero rated, meaning you can access the site and its contents without incurring any data charges.

We have focused on providing workplace experience and on the job training. Young people have often expressed frustration around the onerous experience requirements from employers that effectively serve as a barrier to entry for them.

In 2019, we abolished the work experience requirement for entry level jobs in the public sector. Through the Youth Employment Service, a collaboration with the private sector, tens of thousands of young people have been placed in workplace experience opportunities in a range of economic sectors.

The extent and scale of the youth unemployment crisis means that we should not focus solely on placing more young people in formal, existing jobs, but that we must bolster skills development and foster an entrepreneurial culture.

It is critical that we overcome the mismatch between the skills available in the workforce and market need.

This is why we are investing in vocational training. We have increased funding to Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges and subsidies for the operationalisation of new campuses. Each year, we are placing thousands of learners and graduates into workplace experience opportunities.

Entrepreneurship is a key economic growth driver, but rates of entrepreneurial activity in South Africa are relatively low compared to other countries. We are working to foster an enabling environment that allows more young people to become self-employed.

The Presidential Youth Employment Intervention has been working with the National Youth Development Agency and the Department of Small Business Development to financial and non-financial support to young people for their businesses.

Through all of these initiatives, the state has supported millions of young South Africans with work opportunities, work experience and skills development. However, we can only vastly scale up the employment of young people with greater private sector involvement.

I call on business and other public sector entities to use SAYouth.mobi to provide more pathways for young people to earning and learning. The private sector needs to use all available mechanisms, including the Employee Tax Incentive, to hire young people.

South Africa’s young people deserve to lead lives of dignity. Unemployment is robbing far too many youth of this right. As government and business, let us continue to work together and do all within our means to empower young people to find jobs and create their own opportunities.

With best regards,

Cyril Ramaphosa is the President of South Africa