South African Business 2024

SPECIAL FEATURE
Collaborating to put young people to work
Youth unemployment remains a stubborn national problem but creative solutions
are increasingly coming to the fore.
By John Young
learnerships, internships, short-course skills
programmes and apprenticeships. SETAs are well
placed to act as the linking factor between tertiary
institutions and private companies or to ensure
collaboration between NGOs and industry.
Every industry is covered by the SETA network
and companies must contribute a skills levy to the
appropriate SETA. This occurs within a National Skills
Development Strategy.
In launching MTN Xlerator in 2023, CEO
Charles Molapisi explained how the scaledup
Enterprise and Supplier Development
programme is intended to boost supply chains,
drive economic growth and create jobs.
It is in everyone’s interests that the rate of youth
unemployment in South Africa comes down.
StatsSA has published figures suggesting
that as many as 60% of the 15-24 age group
are unemployed. The rate for the 25-34 cohort is
above 40%.
The single, simplest solution would be for the
national economy to grow faster, but because
making that happen is actually extremely complex,
other solutions have to be found. And this is where
collaboration between business and industry,
the education sector and non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) becomes vital.
Since 1998, South Africa has had Sector
Education and Training Authorities (SETAs). These
vocational-skills-training organisations were
established by an act of parliament and there are
currently 21 of them. SETAs create and manage
Role of skills
Whether the goal is to prepare to work for
someone else (get a job) or to encourage
entrepreneurship (start a business), the need for
skills remains essential.
Depending on the priority, the skills training
programme would be biased in favour of workspecific
skills (welding, computer skills, handling
equipment) or business-related capabilities
(keeping track of cashflow, marketing).
The South African Council for Graduates
Cooperative (SACGRA) sets out to support
both approaches, striving to develop both
“competent graduates that can become successful
entrepreneurs or competitive employees” and like
many such hubs, SACGRA offers advice, mentorships
and links to markets and opportunity. What makes
SACGRA stand out is its focus on co-operatives.
Co-operatives are a successful model already
widely adopted across South Africa for savings
clubs known as “stokvels”. Old Mutual estimates
that more then 800 000 such stokvels represent a
value of R45-billion. SACGRA aims to professionalise
co-operatives and prepare them to participate in
two private-sector initiatives that have become a
big part of the South African economic landscape,
namely Supplier Development Programmes and
Enterprise Development Programmes.
In terms of these programmes, large companies
are obliged to or choose to help build up and train
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