Peace is a young woman completing her learnership at Standard Bank. Though bright and ambitious, she fell pregnant and dropped out of school before matriculating.This made the likelihood of her finding employment negligible, as her lack of qualifications placed her in a queue behind the 858,610 matriculants, 136,806 diplomates and 30,698 graduates who are unemployed in SA.In the 18- to 29-year age group, 43% of South Africans are not in employment, education or training. And the longer they remain so, the less likely are their chances of ever finding employment, as the experience gap between them and the employed widens. This makes youth unemployment the most critical component of SA’s overall unemployment challenge.Not only is higher employment critical for helping individuals such as Peace move out of poverty, but it is also needed for the economy as a whole to translate all that wasted human potential into faster growth.Peace was unemployed for a lengthy period before joining you...
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