Youth centres to be established to combat unemployment
Facilities to feature free internet, CV-drafting facilities and self-help and assessment services
The government will establish four youth employment centres within existing labour centres over the medium-term expenditure framework to combat unemployment, with each centre estimated to cost R3m to set up, according to the 2020 budget.
Finance minister Tito Mboweni made the announcement in his budget speech on Wednesday. More than half of all young people in SA are unemployed, and of the 1.2-million youths who enter the labour market each year about two-thirds remain outside employment, education or training.
The centres will be equipped with free internet, CV-drafting facilities and self-help and assessment facilities, and will provide a mobile platform through which registered work seekers can be matched to available job opportunities registered on the Employment Services of SA database.
Through the platform, those who require less intervention and job preparation could be fast-tracked for job opportunities, allowing job counsellors to focus on those who require more assistance and enhance their prospects of securing employment, according to the budget.
The expenditure for this was in the work-seeker services sub-programme in the public employment services programme, it reads.
Youth unemployment, which focuses on people aged 15-24 years, is at 58.1%, up 3.4% on an annual basis, according to Stats SA’s quarterly labour force survey (QLFS) released earlier in February. But on an expanded basis for the fourth quarter, the youth unemployment rate was 69.5%.
Priority actions
Mboweni said the government would reprioritise resources to raise spending on this critical area, and work would start immediately. More details would be provided in the medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) later in 2020. “We intend to make this intervention a resounding success,” Mboweni said.
In his state of the nation address (Sona) two weeks ago, President Cyril Ramaphosa said a presidential youth employment intervention, consisting of six priority actions over the next five years, would be implemented immediately. The intervention would involve a youth employment initiative that would be funded by setting aside 1% of the budget.
Ramaphosa said prototype sites for those pathways would be launched in five provinces in February, to form the basis of a national network that would reach three-million young people through multiple channels.
The way young people are prepared for work would be changed fundamentally, with shorter, more flexible courses being provided for specific skills that employers in fast-growing sectors needed.
Ramaphosa said new and innovative ways to support youth entrepreneurship and self-employment were being developed, and the youth employment service would be scaled up. Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges and the private sector would be involved to ensure more learners received practical experience in the workplace to complete their training.
Grant funding
In addition, the first presidential youth service programme would be established to provide opportunities for young people to earn an income while contributing to nation building.
The National Youth Development Agency and the department of small business development would provide grant funding and business support to 1,000 young entrepreneurs in the next 100 days. The government plans to assist 100,000 young entrepreneurs over the next three years to access business skills, training, funding and market facilitation.
According to the budget the number of work seekers registered on the Employment Services of SA database is set to increase from 700,000 in 2019/2020 to 800,000 per year in 2021/2022 due to a planned increase in advocacy campaigns and the number of employment counsellors employed.
Employment counselling would be provided to an estimated 690,000 registered work seekers in the next three years at a projected cost of R45m in the work seeker services sub-programme.