SA Youth Employment Service initiative needs more investors

President called on more companies to join Youth Employment Service initiative to increase chances of employment.

Unemployment among youth is the greatest challenge to social and economic development in South Africa according to President Cyril Ramaphosa. He was speaking as he toured the Volvo Assembly Plant in Amanzimtoti, south of Durban.

The president urged companies to join the Youth Employment Service initiative, launched in March. This initiative, which provides work experience opportunities for young people on a scale never seen before in this country, is the result of effective collaboration between the government, business and labour.

Ramaphosa called on more companies to join the program, not only to increase the chances of employment for many thousands of young people but also to enable the companies themselves to develop the young workforce that they will need to expand and grow.

According to figures released this month by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), South Africa's official unemployment rate remains at 32.4 percent amongst 15-34 working youth age group, the highest youth unemployment rate in the world, followed by Greece (25.2 percent) and Spain (22.2 percent).

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In his maiden State of the Nation Address (SONA) in February, Ramaphosa announced that a jobs summit would be held within the next few months to harness the energies of business, labour and government behind a major job creation initiative.

In its National Development Plan (NDP), the government sets the goal of halving youth unemployment to six percent by 2030.

President @CyrilRamaphosa attended the Volvo Youth Employment event in KwaZulu-Natal. In his address he expressed the need to "further build on the collaboration with business and labour to restore confidence and prevent any further decline in our sovereign rating" pic.twitter.com/X6td4i0aCa

— PresidencyZA (@PresidencyZA) May 19, 2018