President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on businesses to expand employment opportunities for young people, urging employers to look beyond work experience and recognise the potential, aptitude and determination of young job seekers.
Addressing the SA Youth National Leadership Convening at the Galleria Conference Centre in Sandton on Thursday, the President said government, business, labour, civil society and educational institutions must work together to tackle youth unemployment.
He urged businesses to create more opportunities for young people to gain workplace experience, develop their skills and demonstrate their capabilities.
“Let us stop treating a lack of experience as a lack of ability. A young person should not have to spend years searching for an opportunity simply because no employer is prepared to give them a first chance.”
The President said youth unemployment is not merely an economic challenge, but a social and human challenge that affects the country's future.
He called for a shift in how young people were prepared for the world of work, saying South Africa could not address unemployment by continuing to do more of what had always been done but instead to rethink the way “we prepare young people for the world of work.”
Shared responsibility
The President emphasised that addressing youth unemployment is a shared national responsibility and could not be left to government or business alone.
Government must create an enabling environment for investment, enterprise development and employment, while businesses must invest, expand productive activity and open their workplaces to young people.
Educational institutions, meanwhile, must equip young people with the knowledge and skills required by employers.
Labour, civil society and communities also have a role to play in ensuring that opportunities are accessible, fair and inclusive, while young people must actively participate in shaping their economic futures.
The President said the Government-Business Partnership had demonstrated the value of cooperation in addressing constraints on economic growth, improving the investment environment and supporting reforms in critical economic sectors.
He called for the same spirit of cooperation, urgency and determination to be applied to youth employment.
The President said initiatives such as the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention, the SA Youth Pathways Network and the Youth Employment Service had established practical ways of connecting young people to opportunities.
Public employment programmes had also enabled young people to gain work experience while contributing to education, food security, community safety and environmental protection.
However, he stressed that the country's ambition must extend beyond placing young people in temporary programmes.
He said public employment opportunities should serve as stepping stones to further training, entrepreneurship or lasting employment, while workplace placements should provide entry points into careers.
The President also called for stronger connections between education, training, work experience and employment.
He said reforms to the skills development system, including the Sector Education and Training Authorities and technical and vocational education and training colleges, are aimed at making training more responsive to industry needs.
In addition, businesses should play a greater role in identifying skills requirements, designing training programmes and providing workplace learning, while colleges should produce graduates equipped to participate in the modern economy.
He further called for vocational and technical careers to be recognised as attractive and rewarding pathways to success.
He highlighted the need for artisans, technicians, builders, electricians, mechanics, agricultural specialists and other professionals with practical and technical skills.
Supporting entrepreneurs
The President said South Africa also needed to expand opportunities for young entrepreneurs, who could establish businesses, develop products, provide services and create employment.
While young people were demonstrating enterprise and innovation in townships and rural communities, many promising businesses struggled to grow because of limited access to finance, markets, business support and infrastructure.
He called on government and business to expand access to start-up and working capital, open procurement opportunities and supply chains to youth-owned enterprises and provide mentoring and business development support.
Established businesses were also encouraged to integrate young entrepreneurs into their value chains.
“A young entrepreneur does not always need a grant. Sometimes what that entrepreneur needs most is a customer. A contract. A market. An opportunity to prove that their business can deliver,” he said.
The President identified tourism, agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing, digital services, the green economy and the creative industries as sectors with significant potential to create employment and develop skills.
He said government, industry and training institutions needed to work more closely to identify growing labour demand and ensure young people were equipped to take up available opportunities.
Implementation
President Ramaphosa said the Work SA Youth Implementation Plan provides a framework for coordinating efforts and scaling up approaches that had demonstrated their effectiveness.
However, he stressed that implementation must take precedence over strategies and announcements.
He also called on business leaders to identify practical employment opportunities within their companies and industries, while industry associations should work with employers, including smaller businesses, to expand workplace learning and entry-level recruitment.
Education and training institutions should strengthen their relationships with employers, while government departments and agencies should remove obstacles preventing these efforts from succeeding.
The President said the partnership needed clear responsibilities, practical commitments and mechanisms to assess progress.
“We need to know what is working, what is not working and what needs to change,” he emphasised.
In addition, successful programmes should be expanded, while those that were failing need to be improved.
President Ramaphosa also emphasised that young people were not asking for special treatment, but for a fair chance to work, learn, earn a living and contribute to the country's development. -SAnews.gov.za
