The Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Nonceba Mhlauli, has urged young people to take advantage of job opportunities available through government initiatives aimed at tackling youth unemployment.
Mhlauli made this call during a site visit to Afrika Tikkun Services in Salt River, Cape Town, on Tuesday.
Afrika Tikkun Services is an organisation that is part of the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI), through the Jobs Boost Programme.
Jobs Boost is a R300 million pay-for-performance model being piloted in South Africa. It is an outcomes fund that works with implementing partners to secure sustainable, quality jobs for unemployed, excluded youth.
The programme is the largest youth employment outcomes fund in the world, and a major innovation in the South African government’s effort to confront the chronic youth unemployment problem. Jobs Boost was initiated by the Presidency, as part of the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention.
Mhlauli’s visit at Afrika Tikkun Service, aimed to assess the progress and impact of the initiative on young participants. She expressed satisfaction with the program’s implementation, particularly its focus on ensuring young people's transition into sustainable employment.
“This morning, we are at Afrika Tikkun, which is one of the partners through the Jobs Boost Program, which is part of the Presidential Employment Youth Intervention. We came to assess the progress of this particular program, as well as the impact on young people,” she said.
The Deputy Minister highlighted that the facility offers a structured approach to preparing young people for the job market, including a recruitment phase, job readiness training, and eventual job placement.
The Deputy Minister was particularly pleased to learn that the first cohort of participants has already been successfully placed in jobs.
“The facility is really, quite inspiring. We interacted with young people who are part of various phases of the program, including from recruitment phase, where they are taken into the program and the various levels, including job readiness programs as well, where you get them ready for job placement. And one of the reports we also received is that the first cohort has already been placed,” Mhlauli said.
The Deputy Minister highlighted that the young people are not just being trained, they are being placed in sustainable jobs for a period of at least six months.
“When we speak as government about addressing youth unemployment, we are speaking not just about training young people, but also speaking about how we get those young people into sustainable jobs for a period of a minimum of six months.
“So far, we are quite happy with this cohort, and one of the things that we have discussed with the team is that they will come back and discuss with the management of the facility on areas that they believe can be improved, as we go forward and upscale into the next cohort, going forward into 2026,” the Deputy Minister said.
Mhlauli also commended the enthusiasm of the participants and noted the high number of young women benefiting from the program. She added that this is encouraging as it addresses the gender disparities in youth unemployment.
“There's much excitement, much enthusiasm from the young people, and we are very happy to see that most of them actually are young women. In particular, most of the classes are filled with young women, which shows that we are also not just looking at youth unemployment, but particularly the unemployment rate of young women, which are obviously most adversely affected by the crises of unemployment.
“All in all, we are quite happy about the progress we have seen, and obviously the impact that is quite visible in the lives of young people,” she said.
Encouraging broader participation, she urged young people to explore opportunities on the SAYouth.mobi platform, a zero-rated government website that provides information on employment, training, CV writing, and business planning.
“We call on young people to make use of these opportunities, and the quickest way to do that is to go onto the SAYouth.mobi website. It is a zero-rated website where you'll find all of the information about the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative, as well as other initiatives such as the YES Program.
“It is one of the platforms that government has created for young people to be able to access these opportunities. So, we really do encourage young people to go onto that website its zero-rated meaning that you don't need any data to get onto the website,” the Deputy Minister said.
The Chief Operating Officer at Afrika Tikkun, Marian Claite, also reflected on the significance of the visit, emphasising the collaborative efforts between Afrika Tikkun and the Presidency.
“Today we met with the Deputy Minister Mhlauli from the President's office, and it was to discuss one of our projects that we are working on called Job Boost. And it was a very constructive conversation that we had. We discussed from the enrolment of our candidates to the training of our candidates, and where we are because we are now at the placement phase.
“We discussed our challenges and the collaboration of the relationship, how it would look as this was a pilot, how it would look next year, and what complexion we would like it to take,” she said.
Claite added that they have given some suggestions on their side on what they would like to see included in the program, as well as what is working well for them.
“At the end of the day, I think it is our mandate, and it's all of our wish that all 1,375 candidates that Afrika Tikkun Services has been tasked with training will be placed in meaningful employment opportunities,” Claite said. – SAnews.gov.za
