ARTICLE BY: Londiwe Buthelezi
PUBLICATION: Fin 24
From barista courses to flying drones and running coding courses in townships, the Youth Employment Services (YES) is taking a different direction to its initial promise to create one million jobs, according to its new CEO.
Ravi Naidoo, who was appointed as the CEO of YES in September, says it is not realistic to expect South Africa to eradicate the high youth unemployment in the country through one programme, especially because the economy has been stagnant for years.
“I know there are 4.7 million [unemployed youth] in South Africa. We, on our own, are not trying to solve for 4.7 million. Not even 1 million,” said Naidoo.
As one of the commissioners in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s national planning commission, he has a long-term view on the best way to solve youth unemployment in South Africa. If it were up to him, he’d spend more money strengthening STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subject skills in pupils just below matric level.
But something must be done about the millions of young people who are already out of school and jobless. Some have tertiary qualifications and have been sitting at home for several years.
With the YES programme, his goal is not to catch up and deliver the initially promised one million jobs in a year or two. Instead, he wants the programme to target young people who will grow into impactful professionals a few years later or open businesses that will create jobs for more youth.
In the three years between 2019 and 2021, the YES programme absorbed an average of less than 30 000 young people a year, delivering 82 207 work opportunities – all funded by the private sector as it doesn’t receive any state funding.
Naidoo hopes to ramp this up to 50 000 work opportunities a year by adding environmental, social and governance (ESG) points for participating companies. Currently, the programme benefits participating companies by improving their BEE scores.
But his biggest goal is to see the programme create more “future-facing” jobs, which is why YES has partnered with Drone Academy in Johannesburg’s Alexandra and in Saldanha.
YES launched the second phase of the Ulusha Hub in Alexandra this week, opening a new wing to accommodate more young people at the centre, which houses a textile academy, drone academy, information and communications technology (ICT) and digital laboratory and a small business centre, among other things.