Since President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the Youth Employment Service (YES) in March last year, companies have jointly committed to realising nearly 18 000 work opportunities.

Last week, the President met with YES candidates, who started their paid work experience at Nedbank, and responded to their most urgent grievances, including sustainable jobs after training and work experience and relevant training to equip them for market demand.

Nedbank last week pledged its sponsorship of 3 315 candidates between the ages of 18 and 29, over the next 12 months. About half of these candidates will complete their paid work experience at Nedbank, while the remainder will complete their paid work experience at Nedbank’s placement partner companies, including nonprofit environmental organisation Wildtrust and talent development company UnlockD.

YES CEO Dr Tashmia Ismail-Saville noted during the meeting that 231 companies had registered on YES’s jobs portal, with the 18 000 work opportunities now available for paid work experiences at either their own companies, or sponsorships of salaries while working at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Nedbank CEO Mike Brown stated that SMEs, and not large corporates, were the engine room for economic growth and alleviating unemployment.

YES is aimed at creating one-million job opportunities within three years of its launch to help alleviate the 52% youth unemployment rate; however, Ramaphosa confirmed that this period would need to be extended, since the programme is only now gaining momentum, following the legal process of starting up YES, which was only finalised in November last year.

The President said Nedbank had started the ball rolling and he urged other large corporates to follow suit. YES had also already roped in major business partners such as Investec, Cell C, MTN, Sanlam, Sasol, Standard Bank, Unilever, Volkswagen, PG Group, Netcare, Woolworths, Tarsus Technology Group, Adcock Ingram and ArcelorMittal South Africa.

In response to some of the YES candidates’ grievances voiced with the President, he said he was working to remove the experience requirement for entry-level public-sector jobs to make it possible for educated and/or skilled youths to start working, even though they might not have adequate experience included in their curriculum vitaes.

Ramaphosa called on the private-sector to also help in overcoming this barrier to entry into the job market, as many educated youths ended up being unemployed, even though they had studied the required theory for the job.

The President said that he had set up and would chair a Youth Commission to address the challenges that the majority of young people experience in getting a job or starting a small business.