Looking for a holistic solution beyond B-BBEE? Want to change youth lives? If your answer is YES, then read our March webinar round-up. YES panellists, Marc Ashton and Farai Mubaiwa, discussed YES's turnkey solution and answered questions like "What does it mean to do YES beyond B-BBEE?" and "how does integration with ESG/SDGs affect job creation for youth?" Plus, they unpacked Pizza Hut SA’s new YES programme, LeadHERship, which was done for non-B-BBEE purposes and is changing the lives of over 100 South African women.
Marc covered the history of YES, its inception, its legislation and its purpose – to read more about this click here.
What is important to note is that YES tries to solve the experience trap that many South African youth are faced with: “I can’t get a job without experience, I can’t get experience without a job.”
Marc noted that even with this particular initiative, the youth who were interviewed had been struggling to find employment despite having tertiary qualifications.
“I was involved in some of the youth interviews taking place for the LeadHERship programme. Every single one of the 25 candidates who was applying for a community healthcare job had at least a bachelor’s degree with honours and they were looking for an entry-level, R3,760.00 a month job [R4,020.00 as of 1 March 2022]. They were unable to break into the workforce despite having a tertiary qualification. And that’s a scary situation for the world to be in at the moment.”
This is anecdotal evidence of how, in some instances, work experience is more valuable than education, which is why YES is so focused on building a young person’s employability through a CV and reference letter.
The case study on Pizza Hut SA’s LeadHERship initiative covers the impact of the YES programme beyond B-BBEE. We’ve spoken a lot about the “beyond B-BBEE” concept (which you can read about here, here, here, and here), but at its core, this idea looks at how YES can make an integrated impact on company, country and youth using other policy tools, such as environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies and reporting, as well as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In other words, beyond B-BBEE is about using youth jobs to create impact in other key social and environmental areas, such as conservation, health care, SMME development, early childhood education and many more through our turnkey solution.
"With the global focus on SDG & ESG, we can then look at aligning each of the projects and initiatives we run with corporates to focus on these goals and targets."
The LeadHERship initiative’s focus was on SDG 4 and SDG 8, which target gender inequality and economic growth. It specifically aims to empower over 100 young, Black women aged 18-24 with critical skills that are needed to break into the job market and build a solid foundation as they navigate their careers.
Black women were a key focus for Pizza Hut SA, as they have historically been the most vulnerable in times of economic recession. The Quarterly Labour Force Survey for quarter 3 (Q3) of 2021 found that the unemployment rate was 41.3% among black African women, the highest among women. These youth are based predominantly in Gauteng and the Western Cape and come from urban, semi-urban, and rural communities and have been linked to our YES-vetted host partners through the turnkey solution. These are:
Youth Health for Africa, a youth-focused organisation and an affiliate of the Aurum Institute. 31 young YES women will work in clinics, hospitals, and communities to champion sustainable impact and address key social determinants of health.
One client, a giant in the South African telecommunications industry, has a job creation footprint through the YES programme in Gauteng, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo. The youth were placed with YES host partners operating in positions that offer crucial in-demand skills such as data capturers, cyber security agents, digital artisans, content creators and software developers. This offers them a year of work and upskilling while earning a salary.
YCC (Youth Content Collective), which helps turn young, creatives into micropreneurs. The programme helps photographers, videographers, and illustrators monetise their talents while delivering on the business community’s need for fresh, authentic creative assets. #CreativePotentialRealOpportunity
Click Learning, which deploys online English literacy programmes in underprivileged primary schools across South Africa, will coordinate 31 of the pre-selected young women, who will help facilitate these literacy programmes in school computer labs.
And finally, Youth@Work, which facilitates the creation of jobs within local schools and communities, will place 31 female youth at its facility to strengthen these environments and evolve the youth’s understanding of alternative job spaces within social and community contexts.
It’s also an example of how businesses can take advantage of YES’s flexibility beyond B-BBEE.
This initiative shows how there is so much more that can be done if we intentionally focus on the deliverables we want to meet within communities, aligning this with ESG and SDG and defining how impact is measured.
Critically, because Pizza Hut SA is not participating in YES for the B-BBEE benefit, this project will be a multi-year project, with investment in these women spanning over four years. What is extremely important to the fast-food giant is their absorption outcomes in terms of creating an environment where these women can be absorbed, and track them downstream.
For these women, impact will be measured over four years, so that we can understand their trajectory and whether we have succeeded in removing their barriers to accessing employment opportunities.
Over 1,900 businesses have already signed up and together, we’ve created over 72,500 work experiences for South African youth. This translates to R4 billion being injected into the economy through YES Youth salaries alone.
All while creating critical opportunities for youth and a better future for all.