South African telecommunications giant MTN Group is committing to the creation of 1 000 ‘first job experiences’ for young people across its South African businesses and head office within the first year of the implementation of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Youth Employment Service (YES).

The business-led social compact with government and labour aims to unlock paid good-quality work opportunities for one-million South African youth over the next three years.

“YES is an innovative social partnership that has the potential to be a significant catalyst for economic growth and development,” says MTN Group president and CEO Rob Shuter.

YES CEO Tashmia Ismail-Saville says that research shows that at least one year’s paid work experience, with a CV and reference letter, increases the odds of South African youth securing permanent employment.

“The success of the initiative now lies in bringing scale to the operation,” she says, adding that business can reverse the rising youth unemployment rate – MTN is one of the initiative’s forerunners.

Over the next three years, YES will incentivise businesses to employ young people for their first work experience through three channels – corporate work experiences, small, medium-sized and microenterprise (SMME) host placements and microenterprise creation.

This is expected to inject an additional minimum of R8.4-billion in personal income into the economy each year.

“The return on the investment in creating pathways for youth that are currently locked out of the economy will be a significant return for all businesses in the longer term. On the other hand, the costs of ignoring six-million of our marginalised youth will be a far higher price to pay for our economic future,” Ismail-Saville adds.

The corporate work experiences will see participating businesses create one-year paid positions for youth aged between 18 and 35, while the SMME host placements will provide an option for businesses without the capacity to place an individual in their organisation to sponsor the salary for a one-year placement in an SMME.

The microenterprise development channel, on the other hand, will empower youth to start and grow their own businesses, with support from YES in the form of training, seed funding and value-chain integration.

Participating businesses that meet the YES targets, and with the required registration criteria, can move up a level on their current broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) scorecard under a new Youth Employment BBBEE recognition scheme.

Further, to encourage demand-side job creation, companies employing black youth between 18 and 29 years old will qualify for the Employment Tax Incentive.