There are solutions to youth unemployment, but there’s no silver bullet. [Picture: Northcliff Melville Times]
The latest youth unemployment statistics may paint a bleak picture, but there is hope for young people in South Africa. This is according to the Youth Capital campaign, which is seeking solutions to the problem.
Speaking in an interview on Salaamedia, Project Lead at Youth Capital Kristal Duncan-Williams said the country was losing out on a wealth of potential due to youth unemployment.
“We are missing out on the creativity, talent and skills that sit within this population if we don’t support them to be able to thrive … We speak about them as this blob of people, but they’re a really heterogenous, mixed group of people,” she said.
South Africa’s unemployment rate retreated by 0.2 percentage points in December to 37.2%, according to the latest quarterly labour force survey. However, youth unemployment remained stubbornly high at 43.4%.
“We at Youth Capital spent a lot of time talking to young people to understand what it’s like for them to try to go from places of learning to places of earning,” said Duncan-Williams. She added that, using these insights, Youth Capital set out to find solutions to the issue.
As she put it, there was no silver bullet to eradicate youth unemployment – but “we really need to work together”.
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Collaborative approach
Duncan-Williams said there were a number of organisations campaigning to alleviate unemployment. A collaborative approach was necessary to combine the strengths of these organisations and the results of their work, she suggested.
She pointed out that career guidance at a school level needed to be improved. There was Life Orientation, a subject meant to prepare pupils for life ahead, but this she found to be inadequate.
“We can’t all be everything to everyone. We try to feed our information into those organisations who are very present at [a] school level and at a policy level, we need to improve career guidance at school level.”
Furthermore, said Duncan-Williams, communities needed to highlight the success stories among youth instead of allowing them to fall prey to gangsterism.
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Opportunities and tools
While there were many tools aimed at alleviating youth unemployment in South Africa, she said many were unable to reach these. She said equipping youth with information was a first step towards empowering them.
“It’s about getting information into the hands of young people and then having adults within their space who can hold their hands through the journey.”
SAYouth.mobi is a government-sponsored network that offers youth free access to learning and earning opportunities. This initiative is part of the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention.
Jobstarter.co.za is another useful tool for youth, she said. Light on data, it helps users to get their CV in order to prepare them for job seeking.
Jullie Allie and Kristal Duncan-Williams discussed solutions to youth unemployment on News & Views. Watch the full discussion here.
