SA is experiencing a profound youth crisis, thanks to poor education standards and dire job prospects. The reason for this is a devastating relationship between poverty, childhood deprivation and economic growth. Statistics SA’s recent report on poverty trends reflects that 30.4-million people — more than half of us — were living in poverty in 2015. Staggeringly, poverty was highest among children aged 17 years and younger. Combine these catastrophic figures with the profound levels of unemployment among young South Africans, and it’s clear that without urgent intervention, we are heading for disaster. Our economy must grow at 3% on average to maintain job prospects; it is now at about 1.1%. If predictions for the rest of the year are accurate, we will be lucky to crack 1.5%. Stakeholders at every level agree that the achievable rate of economic growth is directly linked to the skills of the population. This is where business can have the greatest impact. In the World Economic Forum...
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