DEPARTMENT OF LABOUR THEME: YOUTH AT THE CENTRE OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES

1. DEPARTMENT OF LABOUR THEME: YOUTH AT THE CENTRE OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES 2013-06-21

2. Background • It is estimated that approximately 3 million of unemployed people are aged between 15 and 35; • Young people who live in poor neighbourhoods with bad schools and little support are worse off. • They have little, if any, access, to social networks that could link them to job opportunities with their contemporaries, and their parents are likely to have been unemployed themselves for substantial periods of time • They struggle to access appropriate training opportunities to improve their employability, or set up their own businesses

3. Background

4. Policy interventions by the Department • The Department has introduced the new Employment Services Bill and it seeks to create an enabling environment to; • strengthen the Department’s employment services functions. • to assist job seekers to access employment and training opportunities. • to assist employers to access the government’s job seekers data base for matching and placement opportunities. • The unemployed youth registered on the job-seekers data base will be given special attention. 4

5. DoL Services targeting Youth • The core range of services provided for the youth are: • Job placement assistance including registration and matching services for placement in the formal sector. • Internships for graduate youth. • Job preparation/employability enhancement. • Employment counseling. • Career information and self-help career guidance. • Referral to training opportunities, as well as job creation and public works programmes. 5

6. DoL’s Modus Operandi Pursuit of various initiatives to enhance youth employment opportunities and these include; Promoting experimental ways of providing young people with mentoring, training opportunities, linkages to the labour market and useful work experience Identifying projects where young people in schools spend time in places of work, where they will receive mentorship and a sense of the effort required and the opportunities offered within actual careers Identifying experimental programmes are required that start small, are rigorously monitored and evaluated and are then scaled up on the basis of their demonstrated success. . 6

7. DoL’s Modus Operandi Pursuit of various initiatives to enhance youth employment opportunities and these include; Identifying and supporting programmes that take school learners for holiday jobs, helping some to work their way up into the system and find viable career paths. . 7

8. MINISTERIAL FLAGSHIP PROJECTS 8

9. INITIATIVES UNDERWAY OR BEING EXPLORED Pursuit of various initiatives to enhance youth employment opportunities and these include; Conducting Jobs Fairs cum Job Exhibitions targeting the unemployment in general and the unemployed youth in particular. (Young people are encouraged to participate in these Jobs Fairs in their areas) Initiating a Desktop Support Technician Training project targeting about a 1000 young participants. On completion of the course, some of them will be absorbed in the Department of Labour and others placed in other Government Departments and the private sector. Those who cannot be placed will be assisted to set up their own enterprises as support technicians. . 9

10. INITIATIVES BEING EXPLORED • Pursuit of various initiatives to enhance youth employment opportunities and these include; • Provinces will asked to identify X number of young people to be placed on a national training programme in various construction disciplines; viz; • Brick Laying • Plastering • Plumbing • Electrical tubing and wiring • The trainees be linked to the delivery of government Housing programme under supervision of a reputable construction entity. • Government to facilitate the supply of building material and tools of the trade to the trainees. • . 10

11. INITIATIVES BEING EXPLORED • Pursuit of various initiatives to enhance youth employment opportunities and these include; • Provinces will be asked to identify X number of young people and seasonal workers to be placed on a national training programme in various farming and tourism disciplines targeting local tourists; viz; • Farming – Targeting fresh Produce & Other • Poultry • Tour guides • Hospitality • Government to assist secure markets for the farm produce • Government to make land available for the trainees who may be encouraged to form cooperatives and /or their own enterprises. • . 11

12. INITIATIVES BEING EXPLORED Pursuit of various initiatives to enhance youth employment opportunities and these include; Mining Sector: Exploring opportunities in beneficiation for small enterprises, social enterprises and communities. Exploring opportunities in mining - related logistics such as storage, components and daily consumables. identifying change agents and or entities to facilitate the leveraging of the opportunities. 12

13. INITIATIVES BEING EXPLORED • Pursuit of various initiatives to enhance youth employment opportunities and these include; • Provinces will be asked to identify X number of young people and the retrenched/displaced workers to be placed on a national training programme seeking to build expertise in various aspects of the green economy including but not limited to; • Solar Water Geysers – Manufacturing, Installation and maintenance. • Designing and offering bridging training courses to facilitate the certification of uncertified plumbers, • Identify young people and displaced workers who are welders but require up-skilling to coded welders that are required in the energy sector. 13

14. INITIATIVES BEING EXPLORED Pursuit of various initiatives to enhance youth employment opportunities and these include; Training opportunities in the Marine sector; The Department has entered into a partnership with SAMSA to train young people on various disciplines in the Marine sector including; Shipping Tourism Engineering, shipping repairs and maintenance Seafarer Cadet training programme . 14

15. Where do we provide DoL services Labour Centres - 125 Labour Centres, 72 out of 139 Thusong Centres and various visiting points Mobile trucks – 19 2 Mobile PES busses with internet connectivity 12 Sheltered Employment Factories Productivity SA HQ and 3 Regional Offices Registration as workseeker and registration of opportunities via DoL website (ONLINE) 15

16. Disclaimer Please note that some these initiatives are at different levels development. Some are active whilst others are either on the verge of being launched or are still at a conceptual phases. The bulk of the projects are coordinated through the Labour Activation Programme located in the Unemployment Insurance Fund. The public employment services related initiatives are located in the Public Employment Services Branch of the department. 16

17. Beneficiaries of the Public Employment Services 17

18. Thank You