INFORMATION SERVICES: RESEARCH

12 February 2006

Key Issues Emanating from the Public Hearings on Youth and Unemployment held by the Portfolio Committee on Labour, 2005

1. Introduction

The following is a summary of key issues that emerged from the public hearings held on youth and unemployment in South Africa by the Portfolio Committee on Labour in 2005. The issues reflected below are generally those that emerged in more than 1 submission. In developing its strategy to oversee the challenges facing young people in accessing employment, the Portfolio Committee on Labour needs to take these issues into account.

2. Summary of Key Issues

2.1 Skills development

Problems pertaining to skills development emerged as a critical area in exacerbating unemployment levels. In light of the Department of Labour's poor spending of the National Skills Fund as reflected in its 2005/2006 annual report, this is a critical oversight area for the Committee. The following issues emerge in the report:

. There needs to be a significant focus on human resource development through learnerships and other initiatives. The fact that learnerships are often not sustainable and that many young people do not find employment after completing them, needs to be urgently addressed. There is a need to conduct an impact assessment of the extent to which learnerships have led to employment over the course of the past five years.

· The Department of Labour needs to evaluate the implementation of the National Skills Development Strategy on a regular basis and identify its strengths and weaknesses.

· SETAs are not sufficiently impacting on job creation in the way that they should be. This situation needs to be monitored and addressed.

· SETA's should develop specific targets for learnerships based on the required critical, core and scarce skills. Accepting Recognition of Prior learning (RPl) remains a significant obstacle. In meeting skills shortages, urgent attention should be given to recognising years of experience, as a form of vocational training that may not be formally recognised. Bridging programmes could be developed to ensure that this is realised. JIPSA is an important initiative and should be located within the context of defining a macro-economic path that would promote skills improvement and meeting skill shortages. It should also be located within a clear industrial strategy that would grow sectors identified under the ASGISA initiative

· There is a need to identify the skills required for key sectors to maintain and expand production. That means identifying both existing bottlenecks and the training outputs required to maintain the sector by replacing existing skills in the coming years. The Department of labour must ensure that qualifications and skills correspond with the needs of the economy.

· There is a need to ensure that employers comply with the skills development strategy and Skills Development Act.

· Government departments, parastatals, non-government organisations and development financial institutions should develop internship programmes to address the lack of skills and practical experience amongst young people.

· There is a need to increase enrolment in Further Education & Training Colleges.

· There is a need to increase the number of graduates and to ensure greater representivity among professional graduates as black people, especially black women, are not adequately represented in these fields. One suggestion is that JIPSA could develop a programme with clear key performance indicators in terms of both representivity and overall numbers. Implementation would then require close work with both employers and universities. It would require, in particular, a massive increase both in bridging programmes for historically disadvantaged individuals.

2.2 Casualisation of employment

· The tendency of employers to casualising and outsource jobs in order to reduce remuneration needs to be monitored and curbed.

2.3 Discrimination in the workplace

· There is a need to oversee the protection of vulnerable workers. Discrimination in the workplace based on race and gender, as well as discrimination against people infected and affected by HIV, is still rife.

2.4 Expansion of SMMEs

· There is a great need for entrepreneurship education amongst young people for self-employment. There is also a need to increase the access of young people to finance for setting up SMMEs. Funding for early stage investments is low in South Africa. It is important that startup initiatives receive seed capital and there is a need to increase business development support.

2.5 Youth development

· There is a need to take stock of youth development programmes and consolidate these.

· There is a need to research the skills base of South African youth and align this with the human resource development needs of the country.

2.6 Disability

· There is a need to improve upon the collection and collation of sufficient and good quality data on persons with disabilities and the challenges that they have to contend with.

· There is a need to monitor and improve upon the willingness of employers to comply with related policies and legislation that pertain to persons with disabilities.

· There is a need to ensure that the public service must reach the 2% target in terms of the numbers of persons with disabilities that it employs by the end of 2005.

· There is a need for awareness campaigns to change prevailing negative perceptions of employers of persons with disabilities. There is a need to ensure that there are sufficient training programmes in place to educate employers in relation to the rights of persons with disabilities.

· People with disabilities must be included when recruiting Community Development workers at local level.

2.7 Youth structures

· The Youth Commission, Umsobomvu Youth Fund and National Youth Development Policy Framework need to be reconstructed with a view to developing a fresh mandate to specifically address the problem of youth unemployment.

· Government should establish a Youth Service programme that will engage young people in providing services to the communities in which they live, while increasing their skills, education and opportunities to generate an income. The Youth Service Programme must include a post-service component that actively supports young people to access economic opportunities.

2.8 Young people and access to credit

· Recently the Trade and Industry Portfolio Committee conducted national hearings on the National Credit Act. As part of this process, a number of organisations called for the granting of amnesty to people who found themselves blacklisted by credit bureaus and cut off from the credit market. Included in this is a large number of unemployed youth. Many got blacklisted as a result of tuition! study fees that they borrowed from various credit institutions to do their studies and had hoped that once they graduated that they would find employment and pay the loans back. It is a known fact that certain sectors such as financial sector, retail and insurance, do not employ people who are blacklisted. There is a need to revisit this issue.

2.9 labour legislation

· There is a need to evaluate! assess the impact of labour legislation.

· Two different submissions suggested that "youth" be included as a designated group in the Employment Equity Act.

2.10 Co-operation between different roleplayers

· There is a need for collaboration between business, educational institutions, the DOL and funding institutions to create co-operatives and joint ventures that will assist in job creation for young people.

· There is a need to lobby the private sector to ensure that their social investment programmes are directed at assisting young people.

· The DOL needs to work with local research agencies to promote a culture of using existing knowledge and information to analyse market and social needs.

2. Social security

The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has several limitations in providing adequate protection against unemployment. These include the fact that it is short term in duration and is quickly exhausted in the case of long-term unemployment and that it is a contributory scheme and excludes the unemployed who have never worked or even lower level workers more vulnerable to regular cycles of unemployment that quickly exhaust their benefits.

There is a need for supplementary social security for those falling through this net, which should be combined with strategic skilling or reskilling programmes to lever workers back into employment. This should provide a minimum safety net guaranteeing each household and person a minimum income. In their submissions, both Cosatu and the Black Sash called for the introduction of a universal basic income grant of R 100 for each person that would be non-means tested.

3. Analysis of key recommendations made

Within the context of the high unemployment rates in South Africa and the fact that South Africa has committed itself to eradicating poverty by 2014 as part of the Millennium Development Goals, the Portfolio Committee on Labour has a critical role to play in overseeing government's attempts to halve poverty by addressing unemployment.

Many of the submissions attest to the fact that young people constitute approximately 70% of those who are unemployed. Many young people are under-employed, unemployed, seeking employment, in between jobs or working unacceptably long hours under informal, intermittent and insecure work arrangements without the possibility of professional and personal development. Many work in low-paid, low-skilled jobs without prospects for career enhancement and under poor and precarious conditions in the informal economy in both rural and urban areas. Many employers have tended to increasingly casualise work in order to escape having to enforce some of the provisions pertaining to the protection of workers required by legislation.

There is a need to take this issue up with the Department of Labour and explore the studies and interventions that it has pursued in this regard. The submission made by COSATU, FEDUSA and NACTU further points out that it is not only important to create jobs, but the kind of jobs that are created is also important. The challenge for government is therefore to create good quality, well-paid and secure jobs on en mass. There is therefore a need to address the situation whereby workers accept sub-standard jobs where their rights are easily violated because of their desperation to earn an income.

The submissions raise a number of critical challenges in addressing joblessness in South Africa. Some of the challenges that merged are discussed below:

Improving access to universal, free, good quality public and primary and secondary education in South Africa emerged as critical to improving prospects for employment. Many submissions raised the fact that many young people do not have the basic literacy skills that are required to access vocational training, which will enable them to make the transition from unemployability to employability.

Improving basic literacy and numeracy skills emerged as being critical to skilling young people. There is also a need to increase the number of graduates and to ensure greater representivity among professional graduates as black people, especially black women, are not adequately represented in these fields. Proposals in this regard need to be explored further in collaboration with the Portfolio Committee on Education.

The issue of skills development in general also emerged as a critical challenge in addressing unemployment. The submissions raise that many young people need access to vocational training, knowledge of labour market services and awareness of labour rights and occupational health and safety issues.

The role of the SET As in this regard emerged as an area where there is much room for improvement. The Committee therefore needs to enhance its role in monitoring the implementation of policies in order to ensure that SET As are planning, budgeting and implementing on their mandate at an appropriate level of competency.

The submission made by the South African Graduate Association argues that while the South African economy is growing, this growth has not necessarily resulted in the growth of jobs for young people. It argues that the growth of technological advancement in the country coupled with the demand for highly skilled labour has not correlated with a growth in the development of related skills.

It argues that in real terms more jobs have been created, but there appears to be a mismatch between the jobs created and the skills available. There is therefore a need for the Committee to oversee the work of the Department in doing related research into the labour market within the context of ASGISA and in adequately identifying in which sectors jobs are growing and that adequate resources are allocated to developing skills in these sectors.

A number of submissions raised problems with learnerships. Some of the issues raised here include the fact that learnerships are not sustainable and that many young people do not find employment after completing learnerships. There is therefore a need to conduct an impact assessment of the extent to which learnerships have led to employment over the course of the past 5 years.

The submission made by COSATU, FEDUSA and NACTU in this regard is of relevance. It proposes that SETA's should develop specific targets for learnerships based on the required critical, core and scarce skills. JIPSA is an important initiative and should be located within the context of defining a macro-economic path that would promote skills improvement and meeting skill shortages. It should also be located within a clear industrial strategy that would grow sectors identified under the ASGISA initiative

The Black Sash submission points to the need to improve upon the manner in which the National Youth Commission, Umsobomvu Youth Fund and National Youth Development Policy Framework are used to address the problem of youth unemployment. The Committee needs to critically assess the performance of the Umsobomvu Youth Fund in particular with a view to enhancing the way in which it contributes to eradicating unemployment. A critical of the Umsobomvu Youth Fund's annual report is one way in which to begin this process.

The submissions also raise the fact that establishment of the National Youth Service Programme in the context of the Growth and Development Summit interventions should be reviewed with a view to how this initiative can contribute towards addressing unemployment. Youth Service Programmes should require that young people engage in a structured learning programme that enables them to develop their own skills, knowledge and competence.

It should enable young men and women to obtain credits registered with the National Qualifications Framework. The learning interventions should integrate technical skills, life skills and life experience. It is important to locate this suggestion within the context of the fact that many submissions call for an evaluation or stock-taking exercise of existing youth development programmes. There is a need to critically assess the extent to which these deliver on their intended impact and on adapting them where necessary.

The growth and development of SMMEs also emerged as a key factor in addressing joblessness in South Africa. It is critical that young people are supported and equipped to start their own businesses so that they can provide employment for both themselves and others. The Committee therefore needs to exercise its oversight role to ensure that there is adequate entrepreneurship education available to young people and that they are able to access finance for setting up SMMEs.

A few submissions raise the need to reassess the ways in which the Extended Public Works programme can be utilised to address unemployment. One of the main concerns pertaining to job creation linked to this initiative is that the jobs created do not tend to generate a sustainable income because many of the jobs are short-term in nature.

The need to review labour legislation and to improve the efficacy of its implementation emerged in a few submissions. Unfortunately, on the whole, submission failed to specifically mention which pieces of legislation should be reviewed. The Committee, in terms of its oversight role, does need to engage with this issue and further explore with members of civil society which pieces of legislation should be reviewed and on what basis.

The protection of the rights of socially vulnerable persons in the workplace also emerged as a critical issue in a number of submissions. This includes the need to eradicate discrimination based on race, gender and discrimination directed at persons with disabilities. There is also a need to improve the access of socially vulnerable groups to employment and to monitor equity targets in this regard more stringently.

The issue of child labour and the need to regulate this emerged in 2 submissions. Within the context of the fact that work pertaining to child labour has been eliminated from the Department of Labour's programme of action during the course of the year due to reprioritisation, this needs to be taken up with the Department.

A number of submissions link the creation of jobs to economic growth and development. Issues raised in this regard need to be explored in collaboration with the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry.

The proposals raised by the Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative need to be explored in collaboration with the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services. The submission raises a number of valid points in relation to the challenges faced by persons with a criminal record in accessing employment and how the difficulties in this regard act as an incentive to re-offend. The proposal that the criminal records of offences where the offender was a child be expunged except for the most heinous crimes, needs to be considered in the appropriate forums.

The submission made by the Tuks Afrikaanse Studente needs to be located within the historic context of systemic inequities between different race groups. The suggestion that affirmative action should not be applicable to those born after February 1990 and that all youth, including white youth, be included in employment equity targets needs to be located within a context of generational wealth and privilege that was passed on within a system of gross inequity.