Question NW440 to the Deputy President

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24 March 2022 - NW440

Profile picture: Buthelezi, Mr EM

Buthelezi, Mr EM to ask the Deputy President

(1)Whether the Government has any programmes in place to address the high rate of unemployment and specifically youth unemployment; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details; (2) whether such programmes involve engagement with the private sector in order to ensure a targeted approach to the recruitment of young persons to entry-level jobs, as well as ensuring that there are other programmes to empower the youth with the necessary skill set required to be successful in the workplace; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?

Reply:

One of the key interventions under the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan is the Presidential Employment Stimulus, with over 850,000 opportunities created through job creation, job retention and livelihoods support programmes since October 2020. Eighty-five percent (85%) of jobs created by the Presidential Employment Stimulus have gone to youth. This includes over half a million young people placed as school assistants since the inception of the stimulus.

In addition, the National Youth Development Agency continues to focus on the development of startup and scale up youth micro enterprises. Over the last five years the National Youth Development Agency has supported more than 100 000 young people through non-financial interventions such as entrepreneurship training and business development services.

For example, over 7 000 young entrepreneurs have been supported with development finance support through grant funding. In the 2022 / 2023 financial year, the National Youth Development Agency will support 25 000 young people with non-financial interventions, and 3 000 youth entrepreneurs with financial interventions in their entrepreneurship initiatives.

The Department of Higher Education and Training is also working closely with different bodies within the private sector across key sectors of the economy to unlock skills support for young people. This work will look at accelerating the skills intervention component of respective sector Master Plans, and unlocking latent demand in key labour intensive growth sectors. In this regard, Government’s initial focus will be on digital and technology, agriculture, automotive, social and renewable sectors.

Government is working directly with the private sector through the Youth Employment Services, which is an initiative of the private sector to address the ever-increasing challenge of youth unemployment in South Africa. The outcome of this initiative is to place the graduates to the private sector for learnerships, and internship programmes.

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