UJ signs agreement to assist youth with opportunities
The move will see greater collaboration between the university and YES to open access to online courses and entrepreneurship support.
The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has partnered with Youth Employment Services (YES), a private sector jobs engine to provide skills, training and entrepreneurship opportunities.
The ambitious project will give youths linked to the project access to UJ’s portfolio of open online courses in the fields of entrepreneurship and artificial intelligence.
UJ and YES are also jointly creating a broader Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) training programme to ensure that South African youth possess the necessary digital skills and insights they need to thrive in the modern workplace.
Speaking at the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MOU), UJ vice-chancellor Professor Letlhokwa Mpedi said the two bodies were already actively exploring ways to collaborate to achieve their respective mandates and objectives.
“As a university, we don’t only want to graduate job seekers. We want to graduate job creators. UJ is ranked first in South Africa in terms of our impact and second in Africa’s higher education rankings, so entrepreneurship is extremely important to us. We look forward to working with YES to confront one of the biggest challenges facing our country right now.”
CEO of YES Ravi Naidoo said the two parties shared a common purpose of societal impact, and the partnership would provide ‘significant synergies’ in the drive to increase youth employment levels in South Africa.
“One of the most important foundations for our country’s future is the youth – and the biggest endowment we can give them is skills, training and experience that are not only already in demand today, but that will also serve them well into the future. What’s exciting for us is that UJ has a clear vision for preparing its students for the future through its in-depth expertise in areas like artificial intelligence and technologies that support the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
“What makes this partnership important is that both institutions want to make an impact on South Africa’s ongoing youth unemployment crisis. Critically, we believe this partnership will contribute to creating jobs that have a multiplier effect down the line, by turning one job into 10, or more.”
YES is a private sector initiative focused on promoting social mobility. The group works with businesses to place or sponsor unemployed youth in 12-month quality work experiences that are fully funded by the private sector, giving them the quality work experiences and skills that they need to secure future employment. These include placements into various high-impact sectors like global business services, creative, drones, tourism, digital and mining.
YES has created over 116 000 work experiences in the past four years.
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