Motsepe Foundation unites youth and business to unlock job opportunities

To help address the challenges of youth unemployment in SA, the Motsepe Foundation will host an Information and Opportunities Expo in Johannesburg on June 28. 

Youth unemployment has been high in SA for many years, but worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic. About 60% of the 2.1-million jobs lost in the first 18 months of the pandemic were held by people younger than 35.

“The expo will give marginalised unemployed young people some of the information, tools and networks they need [to secure employment], and it will link companies to this dynamic group. We must leverage multistakeholder initiatives if we are to produce the change we need,” says Precious Moloi-Motsepe, co-founder and CEO of the Motsepe Foundation.

Companies participating in the expo include Discovery, Naspers, TymeBank, Sanlam, African Rainbow Minerals, Rain, Tsebo, 22 on Sloane, Agri Enterprises, Accenture, Think Tank, RCL Foods, PWC, SNG Grant Thornton, Harmony Gold Mining, Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club, Harambee, African Fashion International and the Youth Empowerment Service.

Each of these companies will share information about their youth development programmes, such as learnerships, internships, skills development and coaching offerings, as well as mentorship and role modelling initiatives.

The expo will include an online streaming component to allow all unemployed young people who are interested in the event to attend it virtually.

Click here to register for the virtual Information and Opportunities Expo.

Launch of an 'ecosystem of opportunity'

A highlight of this expo is the launch of a multistakeholder platform that will bring together unemployed youth, private sector organisations and civil society enterprises with the aim of facilitating young people's entry into the formal labour market.

The Motsepe Foundation will, over the next five years, use this platform to build an ecosystem of opportunity targeting 1-million unemployed young people.

This ecosystem will leverage the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) initiatives of the private sector by broadening their interventions to include entrepreneurial support and skills development provisions.

This article was paid for by the Motsepe Foundation.