From B-BBEE scores to tax

youth market. An enterprise can participate in facilitating 12-month work experience programmes for unemployed youth by:

1. Sponsoring and hosting youth within their business.

2. Sponsoring placements elsewhere within an existing SME/ supply chain.

3. Providing hosting to the benefit of a new SME.

From B-BBEE scores to tax incentives, there are several noticeable benefits when implementing learnerships in a business:

• Contributing to skills development, job creation and economic growth, while boosting the company’s productivity and adding to its value through the employment of skilled, knowledgeable, competent employees.

• Establishing a pool of properly-trained, experienced employees with critical skills to draw from gives the business a clear competitive edge in the industry.

• Being committed to skills development positively impacts the company’s B-BBEE status, improving employment equity targets by enabling previously disadvantaged employees or unemployed individuals to upskill themselves and earn qualifications.

• There are learnership tax incentives that allow employers to claim up to R120 000 per individual that completes their qualification, along with monthly employment tax incentives (ETI) for every employee hired between the ages of 18 and 29.

Partnering with a training provider that specialises in youth development is the smartest business hack that ensures everyone benefits – the company gains the full tax and employment equity advantages of learnerships, while candidates achieve their full potential through the successful completion of such programmes. S

DRIVING EMPLOYABILITY AMONG SA’S YOUTH

GIBB, one of South Africa’s leading multi-disciplinary engineering consulting companies, has partnered with the government’s Youth Employment Service (YES) initiative to drive future employability among South Africa’s youth.

Introduced in 2018, the YES initiative is a government and business-driven initiative that seeks to tackle South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis.“Many of the learners who are part of the initiative at GIBB don’t have prior work experience,” says Siphamandla Mahlaba, senior learning and development consultant at GIBB. “The programme will provide the students with an opportunity to gain valuable work experience that will make them more employable in the future, be it within GIBB if an opportunity arises or at future employers once their 12-month period with GIBB ends.”

As it is the first year in which the company has participated in the initiative, GIBB advertised posts externally and in line with the criteria set by government and the needs within the business. With over 1 800 applications, selecting the right candidates for the programme was essential. While GIBB has a structured programme that the students follow during their tenure with the company, the YES initiative too has a detailed programme in place.

The initiative provides students with tablets that are preloaded with a variety of online training tools to assist them in upskilling themselves and garnering soft skills such as emotional intelligence, communication and negotiation, among others. “From a GIBB perspective, our role focuses largely on how we can provide students with the necessary experience to make them as employable as possible after their time with the company,” says Mahlaba.

The company treats the students as employees instead of merely as students, providing them with the same induction processes as they would any other employee and the necessary working tools such as a laptop and workstation. Apart from the valuable work experience gained in their respective business units and niches over their 12-month internship with GIBB, students will also walk away with insights on how to look for job opportunities, create a CV and how to conduct themselves in a business environment.

YES student Sinqobile Chili is excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. “Although I have only been with the company for a few weeks, the experience I have gained at GIBB so far has already proven invaluable,” says Chili. “From creating relationships among my peers to understanding the inner workings of the company and how the various roles lead to its success, I am excited for what lies ahead during my time with GIBB and how the teachings will allow me to thrive in the future.”