Publication: IOL
Author: Thobeka Ngema
Photo: Doctor Ngcobo/ Independent Newspapers
The collaboration between government, industry partners, and educational institutions is key to the success of the Working on Infrastructure initiative.
To combat youth unemployment and reform the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) has unveiled the Working on Infrastructure pilot project. This initiative leverages a network of stakeholders to digitise recruitment, provide vital skills, and ensure young people transition into meaningful work or establish their own businesses.
DPWI Minister Dean Macpherson said that under the pilot project, recruitment will be digitised through the SA Youth platform, supported by Harambee. This pilot brings together recruitment, training, work readiness, workplace learning, mentorship and transition support.
“TVET colleges and accredited partners will support technical and work-readiness training. Municipalities, provincial departments, SMMEs (small, medium and micro enterprises), and industry partners will help provide workplace exposure.
"The CIDB (Construction Industry Development Board) will support standards and enterprise pathways. YES (Youth Employment Service), SAPOA (South African Property Owners Association), the National Business Initiative (NBI), Harambee, and other partners will help link young people to real opportunities beyond the programme,” Macpherson said.
Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator chief executive officer Kasthuri Soni said that Harambee’s role in this partnership is not to replace what the government or partners already do well, but to connect the parts of the system that too often operate in isolation.
“Harambee is well placed to coordinate this work because we operate at the intersection of sectors. We partner with government departments, employers, training institutions, delivery partners, and young people themselves,” Soni said.
“Our job is to make the system work as a system, integrated and coordinated to optimise impact.”
Soni said that for the Working on Infrastructure partnership, SA Youth is more than an access platform, is a shared national infrastructure that allows employers like municipalities, private sector companies, and SMEs (small and medium enterprises) to have access to a vast, capable and diverse talent pool of potential hires nationwide, who might otherwise have been overlooked.
“It also enables us to support the transitions of youth through the labour markets, identifying where they are placed, and importantly, showing them what their next step could be. This allows us to facilitate their next pathway to earning by design rather than implementing one-off interventions,” Soni said.
YES chief partnerships officer Tsholo Mogotsi said the EPWP programme and its Working on Infrastructure creates an opportunity to attract private sector partners because it seeks to make an impact on infrastructure.
He said young people in the EPWP must find meaningful, gainful employment in various industries or establish their own businesses.
Mogotsi said one of the reasons they like the Working on Infrastructure project is because it has the installation, repair and maintenance (IRM) component.
He said they also look forward to working with the department and various stakeholders to build entrepreneurial pathways for young people who leave the programme and cannot find gainful employment.
“Programmes like the Working on Infrastructure are important because they provide work opportunities, they provide entrepreneurial development opportunities, and they make an impact on infrastructure,” Mogotsi said.
NBI chief executive officer Shameela Soobramoney said: “Our role is to make sure that we match, as closely as possible, the skills needed for the working on infrastructure programme, and that these are delivered through workforce development in skilling programmes at colleges.
“The skilling programmes don’t only focus on technical ability, but very importantly, we can expect to find that they deal with aspects of workplace readiness, including self-actualisation and personal development, gender equity and social inclusion.”
thobeka.ngema@inl.co.za