Pretoria – Young people from all around the country will get exposure to various career opportunities when the Presidential Youth Indaba kicks off tomorrow.
The four-day indaba will provide a platform for young people to empower themselves. It will also have an expo component to help connect youth to job opportunities, career information, scholarships, bursary programmes and enterprise development support.
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe is expected to address the 500 youngsters, who hail from the country’s nine provinces, on Friday afternoon.
On 18 April 2013, the Youth Employment Accord was signed and committed to by civil society, government, labour, business and the youth movement.
The accord makes several commitments to improve education and skilling of young people, and helping them to find jobs and start their businesses. In it, government also commits to increase the number of people employed in the public sector, while certain industries are to set youth development targets.
The indaba is a platform to give effect to the Youth Employment Accord as the country grapples with finding solutions to the high unemployment rate, especially among young people.
The Economic Development Department (EDD) will host the indaba at the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre, with Minister Ebrahim Patel leading the indaba. He will be supported by the Minister of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, Collins Chabane.
The Presidential Indaba is expected to produce a declaration with resolutions on how together with young people, all stakeholders will address the issue of youth unemployment.
The indaba will form a Presidential Youth Working Group (PYWG), composed of different stakeholders, to meet with the President from time to time to appraise him on the progress of the implementation of the indaba declarations and youth development post the indaba.
The young people attending the indaba will be expected to work together with various stakeholders to come up with solutions to the socio-economic challenges facing young people in the country, particularly as they relate to jobs and skills.
Additionally, the indaba will also promote social dialogue between the youth, government, business, labour and youth development agencies. – SAnews.gov.za
