What gift does South Africa need to give to its youth?

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December is upon us. This year, it would be uplifting to see us giving the gifts that matter: the education, skills and experience our youth need to have a future.

Statistics South Africa’s latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the third quarter of 2022 shows a decrease in the official unemployment rate, down to 32.9% from 33.9% in the second quarter. But the situation remains dire for our youth, where seven million people aged 15-34 are still unemployed (56.1% according to the expanded definition).

Let’s start with education

Here, the key indicators point to South Africa lagging behind other middle-income countries. A report for the National Planning Commission (NPC), Education and Skills for the Economy and Links to the Labour Market in South Africa, suggests our quality of schooling is closer to levels associated with low-income countries such as Lesotho or Nepal.

It’s not all bad news. Some of our education statistics are at a middle-income country level, such as that 57% of youth successfully complete 12 years of education, while pre-school and school enrolment statistics are normal to high.

What this points to is that these structural challenges aren’t going to be fixed any time soon. It’s up to us as business and civil society to find new, innovative ways to get our youth skilled up and work-ready and to provide opportunities in spite of sub-optimal educational outcomes.

Time to get our youth skilled

According to the NPC’s report, South African youth are half as likely to acquire a university degree than their counterparts in countries such as Brazil or Turkey. Currently, only about  8% of South African youth get a degree, and 19% get a post-school qualification.

This shouldn’t be an insurmountable obstacle. While it’s important to get a post-school qualification to enhance employability, it’s not a deal-breaker. In fact, three-quarters of employed South Africans currently hold no post-school qualification.

Focusing more on maximising the employability of school leavers in other ways, especially within high-impact sectors such as technology, global business services and the green economy can help to move the needle. The important challenge remains taking high potential youth and creating a pipeline for them to drive the country forward and break the unemployment trap.

Give youth quality jobs

If we can put 30 000 young people a year into quality work experiences, in 10 years there is a high likelihood that many of these young people will go on to become senior professionals in the private sector or proud owners of their own businesses. If each of those 10% can drive the creation of another 10 jobs, suddenly we’re looking at a significant multiplier effect. It is these future professionals and entrepreneurs that will be South Africa’s real creators of jobs going forward.

The role of giving young people relevant experience is critical. StatsSA’s Transition to Employment report shows the biggest factor in getting a job is whether a person has had prior work experience or not. In fact, some work experience makes you seven times more likely to successfully transition into the labour market — and if it’s in a high-growth sector, that’s even better.

Thankfully, many of the country’s best-known brands have made a positive choice already by joining the business-driven Youth Employment Service (Yes) programme. With no funding from the government, Yes’s solution allows corporate partners to create and sponsor work opportunities. We immediately see the ripple effect that these jobs create — with 88% of Yes youth having dependents — across families and communities.

Famous Brands has placed youth as baristas in Wimpy and Mugg ’n Bean stores across the country, teaching these youth a practical skill that can be used anywhere in the world. Anglo American Platinum is using the Yes turnkey solution to place youth in communities around their mining operations, ensuring that they develop economies beyond the mines themselves while building capacity in areas such as healthcare and education.

Nedbank is using the Yes programme to drive its environmental, social and governance agenda by placing youth in areas like land restoration, eco-tourism, disaster management, education and even running food gardens.

Where until recently, the focus of Yes’s turnkey host partner model has been to help capacitate under-resourced sectors in communities, we are now looking to expand the model to include more future-facing sectors that have the capacity for high absorption, such as the green economy, global business services and technology.

We are already seeing the early results of this model. One Yes alumni now has his own artificial intelligence business. He’s not just gainfully employed, he’s about to create employment opportunities in one of the fastest-growing sectors out there.

If we can nurture more young people like him, we can begin to rely on today’s youth to drive the economy forward tomorrow. Now that’s a gift we can be proud to give!

The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Mail & Guardian.