Industry regulator the Property Practitioners Regulatory Authority (PPRA) on March 6 launched the Transformation Property Partnership programme, which is aimed at enabling meaningful youth employment in the growing property sector as part of its transformation efforts.

The programme is aimed at empowering previously disadvantaged real estate firms and youth and to open up access in the sector.

It is one of the initiatives aimed at mitigating youth unemployment in the country, by allowing the youth access to the country’s strong property sector.

The programme will take a phased approach, with speakers noting during the launch that this is in the vein of ensuring that the considerable challenge is tackled in small pieces, which will allow learnings and challenges to be analysed and rectified, and successes to be built on.

The pilot phase will, therefore, entail 37 host employers and 229 property practitioners, in a ‘one learner, one practitioner’ training programme, equipping them with the skills and tools to become future practitioners.

It is a five-year programme, with the opportunity to renew.

The first phase will be centred on three provinces – Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.

State-owned utility Eskom has also come on board as a strategic partner, and will offer opportunities to practitioners as part of its work of disposing of its vast portfolio of noncore properties.

Once the programme gains momentum and further phases are being pursued, access to this portfolio will offer opportunities to expand the programme to other provinces.

Moreover, other State-owned utilities will be approached in the future, including Transnet, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, and Airports Company South Africa.

The importance of monitoring the programme was emphasised, to ensure that tangible results are gleaned and that challenges can be mitigated before growing it further.