ARTICLE BY: Unspecified
PUBLICATION: Cape Business News
The Youth Employment Service (YES) is doing the breaking for women, tearing apart the gender inequality cycle by partnering with corporates to create future-facing opportunities for women.
58% of YES Youth are women, and 91% of YES Youth have dependents. Through YES, thousands of women are being placed in positions such as data capturers, business process outsourcing roles, cyber security agents, digital artisans, drone pilots, content creators and software developers.
These future-facing sectors can help South Africa emerge as a leading nation in an age of technology, and develop women to become multipliers: leaders who continue the cycle of creating, making and building for themselves and one another.
Siyasanga Msiwa is a 23-year-old woman who, with YES’s help, became the first female forklift driver in the history of Bearing Man Group (BMG). Msiwa is ambitious, driven, and humble. “I was always drawn to being a woman in a role that tends to be more male-oriented,” she said. “So, I grabbed the opportunity to bring something different to the company, experiment, gain experience and have fun while going at it.”
This Women’s Month, it’s time to forge boundless career opportunities, as our forklift driver, Msiwa, and many others have already started to do.
With 42.1% of SA households being female-led, the continued marginalisation of women in employment will have detrimental effects on their families and communities for generations to come. On the other side of the coin, creating opportunities for women to earn and provide for their families is vital to the growth and prosperity of the country.
Join the movement
Creating opportunities for women is important now more than ever. Over 2,200 corporates have already signed on to YES to co-create a future that works for women too.
About YES
YES is a pioneering, business-driven initiative, works in partnership with companies, labour and government to tackle youth unemployment in South Africa.
YES has already proven itself to be one of the true innovators in South Africa, generating over R4.6 billion in youth salaries and more than 82,000 quality work experiences in three and a half years, all with no government funding – making YES the largest private sector-funded jobs initiative in the country.