Private sector-funded nonprofit the Youth Employment Service (YES) has deployed 100 000 young South Africans into the private sector within just four years.

With most of these youth coming from disadvantaged backgrounds, they have the chance to not just change the course of their lives, but also that of the country, says YES CEO Ravi Naidoo.

YES works with businesses to place or sponsor unemployed youth in 12-month quality work experiences that are fully funded by the private sector, giving them the critical experience and skills they need to secure future employment.

In the process, these work experiences have seen R6-billion in salaries injected into local economies across South Africa, the nonprofit points out.

“We haven’t just created 100 000 jobs. We’ve given young people the skills, work experience and social networks they need to contribute to the economy for the next 40 years and beyond. It is these future professionals, entrepreneurs and change-makers who will drive our economic prosperity in the years to come,” Naidoo highlights.

“The fact that two out of three youth are currently unemployed keeps us awake at night. It must do the same for all of South Africa, especially corporates,” he adds.

With 61% of YES youth coming from social grant-recipient households and 77% having dependants, their incomes benefit entire families and even communities. These youth also work in industries and roles that build their local villages, towns and economies.

Given the low rates of economic growth, Naidoo says South Africa is currently producing neither the volume nor type of jobs required to reverse the current unemployment trend.

More than 400 000 new job seekers enter the market every year, but the country has only created an average of 150 000 net jobs a year over the past decade.

“What we need are jobs and initiatives that have a multiplier effect down the line. We must find ways to turn one job into ten, or more. This can only be made possible by unleashing the potential of the country’s youth, creating a talent pipeline for young people from poor households to enter the economy and become the drivers of the changes that the country so desperately needs.

“If South Africa is to succeed over the next ten years, we need to get as many of our talented youth as possible into meaningful roles in the economy,” Naidoo emphasised.

Global studies affirm YES’s assertion that high-skilled jobs create more opportunities. Research by UK-based think tank Centre for Cities suggests that for every ten jobs created in skilled businesses, and in particular high-tech businesses, up to 25 jobs are created in local services.

Research shows that 40% of YES alumni are currently employed, and 15% are involved in entrepreneurial activity.  This is much higher than the national average.

One of these, 25-year-old Chulumanco Lonwabo Nomtyala, a Microsoft YES alumni in the Eastern Cape, has designed an app called Soft 4IR Apps that is aimed at helping people easily apply for housing subsidies.

When YES creates opportunities for talented youth from poor households, it facilitates much-needed social mobility and broadens the base of the economy.

In turn, creating young professionals and entrepreneurs-in-the-making in future-facing sectors that have the capacity for high absorption, such as global business services, technology and digital technology, is creating a multiplier effect that will ultimately drive greater social transformation and higher rates of economic growth in the years to come, the nonprofit notes.

The fact that many of the YES jobs are being created in future-facing industries such as drones, tech/information communication technology, tourism, creative, coding, renewables and finance, simply add to the multiplier effect, says Naidoo.

“These are industries that piggyback on the world’s inexorable move towards digitisation and technology: people working in business process outsourcing centres, for example, or becoming drone pilots, in green energy and developers,” he acclaims.

“Imagine if, in ten years, even 10% of our YES alumni could be managers in big companies or own their own small businesses. If each of that 10% go on to become successful professionals or entrepreneurs, then we’re looking at a massive job and economic impact being brought into the system indirectly through the YES programme.

“If we’re going to move the dial on unemployment in our lifetime, we must focus less on low-impact and temporary jobs and look to create the next 100 000 young game-changers in the economy. We should be putting hope in the eyes of our youth, not despair,” Naidoo avers.