Talent pipeline: A range of programmes is enhancing youth employability

In August 2021, Bloomberg reported that SA‘s unemployment rate was the ‘highest in the world’ out of a total of 82 countries monitored by the publication. In the 2022 SONA, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that in order to encourage smaller businesses to hire unemployed youth, government would be increasing the value and expanding the criteria for participation in the Employment Tax Incentive.‘For several years, this has been an effective way to encourage companies to hire new work seekers. The changes to the incentive will make it easier for small businesses in particular to hire young people,’ he said.

Ramaphosa called on the private sector to support these and other measures by, wherever possible, dropping ‘experience as a hiring requirement — to give as many young people as possible their first job’.

In its 2020 development strategy, the National Youth Development Agency stated that the ‘private sector must be seen to be playing a transformational role in aligning youth-development strategies with their annual performance plans, in particular human-resources planning, and allocating appropriate budgets that will accelerate national youth policy imperatives and related interventions. The future of South Africa’s youth is a collective and shared responsibility’.

While Business leadership South Africa (BLSA) CEO Busi Mavuso suggested that the responsibility remains with government to create a business environment that makes it easier (in terms of regulatory requirements and expense) to hire new employees-‘growth happens when businesses are confident about the future and expand capacity, rather than when they are leaned on to hire people-unemployment is nonetheless a strategic focus for BLSA. The surest way for the private sector to uplift and unlock the potential of unemployed young adults, apart from bursaries, is through interventions as mentorship, apprenticeship and/or internship programmes that give graduates a foothold in the professional world in the form of direct work experience. In order to equip unemployed high school and even tertiary graduates with the skills needed by the economy from data scientists, to tool makers, to crop analysts, to web developers, to accountants-doors need to be opened that allow them into these sectors.

Unfortunately, while government is able to assess and report on the impact of its efforts, it‘s much harder to get a broad picture of the private sector‘s collective contribution. Cathy Duff, co-director of corporate responsibility consultancy Trialogue, outlines the nub of the problem. ‘Most of the large corporates do provide mentorship or internship programmes. However, these are generally not managed through CSI budget. They typically come from the skills-development budget, and are managed by the HR functions in the companies.’ As such, definitive data can be difficult to collect. That said, one doesn‘t have to look far to find individual organisations achievements. There is certainly recognition that, to not only defuse the time bomb but also sustain their own businesses, private companies need to take an active role in creating ‘talent pipelines’ that can supply their own industries with skilled workers.

In the FMCG retail sector, the Shoprite Group has spent more than R700 million over the past six years on extensive retail skills and programmes to enhance the career options of the country’s unskilled and unemployed youth. This has resulted in training 24,308 people in the group’s own Retail Readiness programme,  providing 1,027 bursaries, and training 5,765 young people (from 2018 to 2021) in the Youth Employment Service (YES) programme. In finance, Nedbank’s most recent sustainable development report shows its annual skills-development spend in 2020 was R924-million-a increase from 2019’s R760 million. That may have had to do with launch of its Corporate and Investment Banking Graduate programme, which joins the bank’s Chartered Accountant Training programme and Quants Graduate programme (quantitative and capital risk-management skills).

In addition, Nedbank established the Ikusasa Student Financial Aid programme in 2016 to develop ‘a sustainable funding model to help South Africa’s so-called “missing middle”-or families with a combined monthly income of less than R40 000 — cover the high costs of accessing education’. In 2020, the programme contributed R16.5 million to student applicants (again, a massive increase from 2019’s R7.5 million), which is split between undergrad and postgrad bursaries. These are impressive investments, though not every industry lends itself to such widespread skills training-the more sophisticated the skills required, it seems, the more corporates choose quality over quantity when it comes to learnerships.

‘Digital transformation in the workplace has increased the demand for skilled workers in the fields of data science and artificial intelligence,‘ says Byron Kennedy, Vodacom executive head of media relations. ‘We plan to address these skills skills shortages by providing more pre- programmes opportunities via bursaries, learnerships and internships in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics [STEM]. Other challenges include competition for similar skillsets with industry partners who may offer better opportunities in terms of salary or growth.” This will be integrated into Vodacom’s existing Internship, Learnership and External Bursary programmes.

In addition, its Discover Graduate programme, which began in 2015, has been completed by 379 graduates, with 76 enrolled and on track to graduate in 2022 and 2023. The Vodacom Internship programme has been running since the inception of the Skills Development Act and has provided learning opportunities for about 1 400 unemployed youth since then (an average of 70 youth per year). Youth programmes have in general proven to be a valuable talent pipeline for the job sector in South Africa,’ according to Kennedy. ‘Vodacom’s youth-development programmes have cultivated a skilled talent pipeline for the organisation to match and address various skill shortages with entry level jobs when they do become available. This is in keeping with critical digital skills to cultivate for the future through programmes like We Think Code’s  contribution to software engineering pipeline. This has also made a significant contribution towards Vodacom’s evolution from a “telco” to a “techco”.’

Not all corporates create their own mentorship solutions, opting rather to make contributions to NPOs or organisations that specialise in youth development, or a combination thereof.

The largest privately funded jobs impact programme in the country is YES, also known as Yes4Youth, a non- profit established in 2018 by the private sector to generate job opportunities for unemployed youth. ‘YES worked with 1 700 private companies (mostly large companies) and numerous implementation partners to sponsor nearly 70 000 young people,” writes YES CEO Ravi Naidoo in the Daily Maverick. ‘Salaries of R4- billion were paid to young workers (60% women, and 90% from grant-recipient households), who also acquired invaluable formal work experience. ‘To achieve bigger national outcomes, different organisations, each with their own comparative advantages, must work together. YES has, therefore, increased its collaboration with other high-impact organisations, such as Harambee, the Jobs Fund and the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (covering large—scale public employment initiatives), to build a youth employment ecosystem.’ Social Enterprise Academy Africa (SEAA) — a social development franchise that originated in Scotland – has increased its collaboration with large private-sector organisations to build an ecosystem that helps create employment opportunities for SA youth though social enterprise.

‘Our role is to come in as a key social partner to help address the youth unemployment challenge,’ according to SEAA communications officer Chido Myambo. ‘In 2021, Social Enterprise Academy Africa partnered with British Council South Africa and launched the very first Social Enterprise Schools pilot programme in South Africa. ‘Ten primary schools from across the Western Cape participated in a six-month pilot programme that supported over 700 learners to start social enterprises that help address social and environmental needs within their communities. More than 20 teachers were trained as coaches to help facilitate and support these pupil-led social enterprises,‘ More, however, can be done, she argues. ‘Policymakers have endorsed the role of the private sector as a job generator. 0n the other hand, government does not create employment, but creates a conducive environment to enable private sector to create jobs. ‘The current high rate of unemployment among the youth in South could be significantly reduced if the private sector and public sector joined forces to build a supportive youth employment ecosystem, ‘she says. ‘Through active collaboration, together we can help to develop and cultivate entrepreneurial skills in our young people, allowing them to see themselves as job creators, agents for change and not just jobseekers.’