South Africa’s youth unemployment rate – for individuals aged 15 to 34 years – is currently 45.5%, according to Statistics South Africa, using the official definition. If one were to use the expanded definition, which incorporates discouraged youth who have given up looking for a job, this rate is even higher. The outlook would be even more dire, however, were it not for the efforts of organisations such as The Jobs Fund, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, and companies like Telkom, which are putting significant effort into upskilling youth for jobs of the future.

A panel discussion titled ‘The key to unlocking youth employment’, which took place on the second day of the Trialogue Business in Society Conference 2024, looked at how to overcome some of the key challenges in creating jobs for young people.

The panellists were Judy Vilakazi (executive of corporate social responsibility at Telkom), Kasthuri Soni (CEO of Harambee), Nazeem Hendricks (senior finance specialist at The Jobs Fund), and Cynthia Motau (head of the TsAfrika Foundation and TsAfrika ICT Learnership Programme).

Telkom’s support for young people

A changing job market means young people are facing unique challenges, including the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace.

Telkom is acutely aware of the need to equip young people with skills for the future, and its digital skills programme aims to close some of the skills gaps in South Africa’s ICT sector. Telkom has partnered with the Department of Education to expose learners to coding, robotics, the internet of things and more. It also works with training providers like TsAfrika to accelerate the process of building a talent pipeline and absorb young people into Telkom.

Now in its third year of training young people, TsAfrika says it has been able to place around 20% of the learners it has trained in business and systems development in permanent jobs, with Telkom’s help. However, Motau says learnerships should ideally run for two years to fully upskill youth and ensure their qualifications are fit for purpose. Another challenge is that TsAfrika can accommodate just over 200 learners, but more than 4 000 applicants apply for a learnership.

Vilakazi noted that it is vital to build a skills pipeline, since some skilled people are leaving the country to pursue opportunities elsewhere. “Feedback from our stakeholders indicates that we need private companies to invest more in the future of skills,” said Vilakazi.

Harambee: collaborating for change

Harambee is a non-profit social enterprise. It has spent 13 years collaborating with the government, the private sector and civil society to overcome youth unemployment. Collaboration is essential because of the scale, depth and complexity of the challenge, Soni told delegates, adding that large-scale public-private partnerships are essential.

The Jobs Fund was an early catalytic partner to help test and build the model at scale, and remains an anchor partner in the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention. Co-creating solutions is easier when partners have the same values and objectives, Soni said, notwithstanding the fact that they have their own mandates and operate within specific constraints.

The biggest challenge is learning how to overcome difficulties, leaning into them and co-creating solutions.

Soni said one of Harambee’s biggest successes is building the SA Youth Network in a partnership with the presidency, the Department of Employment and Labour, the Department of Higher Education and Training, The Jobs Fund, and others.

“This is a game-changer that serves nearly four million young people who get free access to aggregated earning and learning opportunities and work-seeker support,” Soni said. “The SA Youth Network also provides employers with access to a young talent pool ready to be matched with opportunities, not just via their CVs but via a line of sight to their problem-solving capabilities. It’s a hassle-free, cost-free way to source quality talent.”

She stressed that Harambee’s programmes keep young people productively engaged, allowing them to increase their employability and progress from one pathway to the next. “All opportunities matter, even short-term ones, but we need pathway management to keep young people economically active for as long as possible, earning a resilient income,” she said.

The Jobs Fund: creating maximum impact

The Jobs Fund is one of Harambee’s partners, and it has received an allocation of R9 billion to deliver impact in the labour space. Established in 2011, it is not a mass employment programme, but functions to test and develop new models and new approaches that lead to job creation. A unit of National Treasury, The Jobs Fund is hamstrung by the weak economy, but helps to overcome demand-side constraints.

Hendricks said one of the challenges is overcoming a lack of trust between the public and private sectors. “But our 163 projects show it’s possible to work together, provided there is a clear structure and plan,” he said, adding that collaborations must be on equal terms.

The government understands it can’t create sufficient impact alone, and collaborates with the private sector to access young people in areas it doesn’t have access to, including local communities. It is particularly important to be able to scale programmes, and long-term sustainability is a consideration.

“Our biggest achievement is that we’ve learnt what works and what doesn’t, and what it takes to create partnerships,” said Hendricks. The Jobs Fund set itself a target of 150 000 permanent jobs but has been able to create more than 220 000.

Hendricks estimated that it costs around R27 000 to create a full-time job, looking at all jobs created to date, and taking inflation into account.

The Jobs Fund has also supported 75 000 SMMEs and emerging farmers. In addition, 53 000 jobs have been created beyond the completion of projects, meaning they have not relied on donor funding.

“This means we have developed a sustainable model,” Hendricks said. He said a robust monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework is essential to measure impact and learn from projects. “If you set up 20 projects, a good proportion of them will fail – but it’s about what learnings you can draw from this, and disseminating them to the market so we can all learn together,” he noted.