Over 500 companies partners with Youth Employment Service
DURBAN – During the 2020 State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa made special mention of the great strides being made by the Youth Employment Service (YES).
Since the official launch of YES in November 2018, more than 550 companies have partnered with YES to create over 32000 quality work experiences. These are expected to inject more than R1.3 billion back into local economies through youth salaries.
This result makes YES one of the highest-impact, jobs initiatives in the country that is not funded by government, but leverages an innovative dti policy on the Codes of Good Practice to reward companies. The reward is a B-BBEE level up for an investment in youth jobs.
Research by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) indicates that the cost to the country of lifetime unemployment is R1.2 million per person.
The 32,000 YES jobs equate to an investment of R1.3 billion in youth salaries for a year, which already breaks the scaring effects of unemployment, by derisking a youth and giving them the experience needed to launch into further work opportunities. We could then argue that YES is potentially saving taxpayers some R38 billion that it would have cost the country had those youth remained unemployed.
Source: iol.co.za
