President Cyril Ramaphosa used his Youth Day speech for the official launch of a new government service to help battle the 46% youth unemployment rate. He called on young people to register for the new SA Youth service to help them gain access to jobs and learning opportunities.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Youth Day speech was focused on the programmes his government has run to help with the youth unemployment problem.
He identified the Youth Employment Service, known as YES as on such successful initiative.
He explained that the YES programme had created 55,000 work experiences since its inception leading to R3.1 billion in youth salaries which fed back into the economy.
In the coming year he said the goal is for YES to double this to 100,000 quality work experiences.
“To translate potential into opportunity we are very pleased today to officially launch SA Youth, the national pathway management network.
This initiative brings together eight government departments led by the Department of Employment and Labour, to form a network that will support young people to find pathways into the economy.
“We have forged strong partnerships with the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator and other organisations to establish this network”.
Young people are encouraged to register on the SAYouth.mobi platform and create a profile for themselves. They will be able to view opportunities for learning and earning. The President added that the programme will allow young people to receive support through multiple platforms.
The SAYouth.mobi platform is available datafree for young people to use on their cellphones at no cost.
The online service is planned to add an extra arm to the other ways that the government is providing services to the youth. This includes the NYDA centres and will include the 127 labour centres operated by the Department of Labour and Employment in every province.
“SAYouth.mobi is already supporting over 1.4 million young people to access opportunities,” added the President.
“These are young people like Joudon Rooi from Stanford in the Western Cape and over 132,000 other young people who found opportunities as education and school assistants through SA Youth.
They include Mthandazo Shabalala from Roodeport, who participated in the Youth
Employment Service programme to access work experience and who was able to secure a job.
Then there is Segametsi Songwane from Hammanskraal who successfully started a small business with support from the National Youth Development Agency, and Nomzamo Xulu from KwaZulu-Natal, a young entrepreneur who received support to start and grow her own catering business.
In the next five years we hope to add another 3 million young people to this network.
This ambition represents the scale and impact that we can achieve through effective public-private partnerships.
Today we are also launching mPowa, a new platform in the SA Youth network developed by the mLab in partnership with the Department of Science and Innovation.
It aims to provide young work-seekers and entrepreneurs with information about services and support that is available in their area.
This platform builds on the success of the Youth Explorer, which has gathered and verified data on the services available to young people across the country.
This year, with the launch of SA Youth, the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention will enter full implementation.
We are extending the Basic Education Employment Initiative to support the employment of young people throughout the country – every district and every ward will benefit.
We are establishing a Presidential Youth Service that will create opportunities for young people to meaningfully contribute to their communities and develop critical skills to participate effectively in the economy,” he concluded.