President Cyril Ramaphosa is appealing to private sector firms to use the SAYouth.mobi platform to publicise job opportunities targeting young people.
In his weekly newsletter, Ramaphosa says there are currently 2.9 million young people registered on SAYouth.mobi and many organisations, companies and departments already use the platform to provide opportunities to young people.
SAYouth.mobi connects young unemployed South Africans to jobs and learning opportunities in their area.
Ramaphosa punted the platform today, while assessing the school assistant programme, which is part of the Presidential Employment Stimulus, saying it is “the largest youth employment intervention in our country’s history”, and to date has reached close to a million participants.
The president says that at the end of this month, the second cohort of 245 000 young people will finish their 10-month placement in schools.
These, he says, will join the ranks of approximately 600 000 young South Africans that have participated in the initiative since its launch in 2020.
According to the president, having provided opportunities to these young people, the country now needs to open their path to formal employment, and he invited companies to use the SAYouth.mobi platform to publicise opportunities.
“We call on businesses to participate in this process by taking advantage of the Employment Tax Incentive to hire more young people and create learnerships. They can use the SAYouth.mobi platform to publicise opportunities that exist in their companies.
“The platform is part of the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention, which brings together several government departments: the National Youth Development Agency, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, Jobs Fund, Youth Employment Service, National Business Initiative and Confederation of Associations in the Private Employment Sector, among others, to create pathways for young people into earning opportunities.”
Ramaphosa says he has been greatly encouraged by the many online groups formed by former participants of the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention programme, where they share work, training and other opportunities among themselves.
“Some of these young people would have liked to be on the programme longer. One person writes that she was grateful to have been given the opportunity, but understands that others need to be given the same opportunity in the next intake.”
With SA’s unemployment rate now reportedly among the highest in the world, Ramaphosa wants more people to participate in the ballooning digital economy and has been driving various initiatives to realise this goal.
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