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Est 2009 Tel : 011 023-7588 / 011 402 - 1977 Inner-City Gazette
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Issue 24 - 2019
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20 - 27 June 2019
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Inner City Gazette
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UJ study recommends youth jobs programmes
Youth employment programmes are critical for promoting human capability skills, and creating an interface with potential employers Lameez Omarjee
T
he Sikhaya Youth Assets Study, released last Wednesday by researchers of the Centre for Social Development in Africa at the University of Johannesburg, sought to address SA youth unemployment. Researchers interviewed 1 996 young people; aged between 18 to 35 four times over three years to come to the findings of the study. Among the findings is that youth unemployment programmes are useful in equipping job seekers in their search for work, and financial capability interventions appear to have a promising impact which requires further investigation. The study showed that youth employment programmes are critical for promoting human capability skills, easing access to information about the labour market and creating an interface between potential employers and young people. Additionally, they can reduce gaps created by the challenges of low education levels and geographic locations. “They play a role in sup-
porting unemployed youth to remain oriented to the labour market and persist with work seeking,” the report read. The study recognised that in a low growth economic environment, few jobs are created. This exacerbates existing barriers to employment. Particularly young people from privileged backgrounds and have access to good quality education transition “relatively smoothly” from higher education to their first full-time jobs, according to the study. “But for the majority of young people in South Africa, who come from poorer socio-economic households, and who have attended schools that provide them with a less than ideal education base, the pathway into and through the labour market is far more difficult to navigate,” the report read. For this reason youth employment programmes are needed to bridge the gap, the study suggested. “Youth employability programmes remain important in supporting such youth to access the benefits of a growing economy,” the report read. Programmes particularly need to
Unemployed youths demonstrate in the street to highlight their plight.
work with employers and find areas of job growth, so that youth can be trained to meet job requirements. The programmes are also needed to keep the unemployed active in their search for work. The study showed that along with a combination of other factors, those
who participated in programmes improved their employment rates as well as average earnings. “Young people who participate in such programmes already show high levels of self-efficacy and future orientation, which perhaps explains them applying for the programmes
and places them in a better position in the labour market than those who do not apply,” the report read. Apart from participating in youth employment programmes, the study also indicated that demographic factors such as geographic location also influenced youth employability.