Youth Employment Service (Yes) has reached the 100 000 jobs mark
YES serves to reignite the economy and give youth a dignified first chance
Yes works with businesses to place or sponsor unemployed youth in 12-month quality work experiences that are fully funded by the private sector. This gives them the critical experience and skills that they need to secure future employment. In the process, these work experiences have seen R6 billion in salaries injected into local economies across South Africa.
“We haven’t just created 100,000 jobs. We’ve given young people the skills, work experience and social networks they need to contribute to the economy for the next 40 years and beyond. It is these future professionals, entrepreneurs and change-makers who will drive our economic prosperity in the years to come,” said Naidoo.
61% of Yes Youth come from social grant-recipient households and 77% have dependents. Their incomes benefit their entire families and even communities. These youth also work in industries and roles that build their local villages, towns and economies.
“We must find ways to turn one job into ten or more. This can only be made possible by unleashing the potential of the country’s youth. Creating a talent pipeline for young people from poor households to enter the economy and become the drivers of the changes that the country so desperately needs,” said Naidoo.
Research shows that 40% of Yes alumni are currently employed and 15% are involved in entrepreneurial activity. One of them, 25-year-old Chulumanco Lonwabo Nomtyala, a Microsoft Yes alumni based in the Eastern Cape, has designed an app called Soft 4IR Apps that will help people seamlessly apply for housing subsidies.
According to Kgomotso Sekhu, Yes alumni, she heard about the programme from one of her friends who encouraged her to apply. She was then placed in a data management space.
“After completing my studies at the University of Pretoria, I had to go home due to being unemployed and the Yes programme helped me a lot”, said Sekhu.
Through the youth employment service, Kgomotso managed to score a job as a BI data analyst at Nedbank and she encourages the unemployed to apply on the company’s websites for future opportunities.
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