Shoprite says YES to 5,765 unemployed youth

The Shoprite Group has spent more than R700 million over the past five years on retail skills and training programmes to enhance the career options of unskilled and unemployed youth in South Africa, according to the retailer.

The money has been used to train 24,308 people in the company’s own retail readiness programme, providing 1,027 bursaries, and training 5,765 young people in the past three years in the Youth Employment Service (YES) programme.

The South African retailer said it believed skills development drove its business and the economy which can transform the lives of many of its employees and job-seeking young people.

The retail readiness programme is five-weeks practical training in stores and two weeks of theoretical training to provide the youth with the basic skills to work in a retail environment or start their own business. Upon completion, successful participants receive NQF-level 3 qualifications.

Through the YES programme the group has created 5,765 youth work opportunities.

Participants of the programme receive on-the-job training at in-store service departments.

Those who complete the retail readiness and YES programme are offered the opportunity to join the Shoprite Group. Absorption rates are 53 percent from the retail readiness programme and 32 percent from the YES programme, excluding current participants.

Shoprite follows a “from school to Shoprite” approach for young people, who may either study on a company’s bursary and then join the business or join the retail readiness or YES programmes straight out of school.

There are also numerous in-house and external programmes in place to upskill Shoprite’s 140 000 employees including learnerships, skills programmes, internships, bursaries for tertiary education and partnerships with TVET colleges.