The youth unemployment rate is the highest it has ever been at 46.3% among youth aged 15 to 34 in the first 3 months of 2021 according to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA). The President has announced his Presidential Youth Employment Intervention which outlines 5 priority actions aimed at accelerating youth pathways into the economy over the next 5 years. 

At the rate the country continues to be put under financial pressure, although the President’s intentions are admirable, the question we need to ask ourselves is where we’ll be in 5 years if the current crisis is already at the levels they are? 

We need to ask ourselves, what are we (or the government) doing now?

“Over the last two years, we have incubated a financial services business called SDC Wealth Management in an effort to proactively service the financial and insurance sector and provide employment to some of the learners we provide learnerships and training for throughout the year,” says Gareth Bird, COO of Skills Development Corporation Group (SDC).

SDC Wealth Management is an authorised financial services provider offering highly competitive and personalised financial short- and long-term products, led by a team of industry experts. The company is offering Medical and Risk Cover; Funeral and Investment Planning; Long and Short Term, Commercial and Indemnity Insurance. At the helm will be Managing Director, Wessel Botha who has proactively been involved in both the insurance and training sectors since 2006. 

Through the work the business has done with other financial institutions - from a learnership and placement perspective, SDC Group saw an opportunity to bridge the gap between learnerships and placements. 

“We have established this business, guided by honesty, integrity and trust to not only meet a need within the financial and insurance sector considering our skills development speciality, but to also be able to help curb the ongoing unemployment crisis,” says Botha. 

The business, has through extensive experience and meticulous theoretical and practical learnerships, governed by 21 SETAs, identified some incredible talent from their 2000 plus learners per year. Sometimes, businesses are not able to offer these learners part- or full-time employment, so SDC Wealth Management, being at the coalface of these two sectors has launched this innovative and accredited financial services business that is driven by excellence – both within the team they employ and the products they sell, for the future of South Africa. 

“We are in the thick of a youth unemployment crisis,” says Bird. “In our business, our priority is to be able to not only upskill our learners and equip them with the necessary work readiness skills, but to also find ways – either within our own business or with our clients to be able to reabsorb the learners offering them part- and full-time employment which doubles up as on the job training.”