“Now is the time for implementation- talking time is over.” These were the words of President Cyril Ramaphosa at the State of the Nation Address as he stood before South Africa to address the nation’s concerns following his re-election.

The President touched on a number of hot-button issues in his address but kept coming back to what he and other experts have deemed “essentially a national crisis”- youth unemployment.

Youth unemployment rates in South Africa are currently at unprecedented high of 55.2% in the first quarter of 2019, according to Trading Economics. This issue has been on the National Agenda since the 1990’s but youth unemployment rates have remained consistently high since the country’s transition to democracy in 1994.

“If left unchanged,” says Advocate Shawn Swiegers, Risk and Compliance Officer for the LFP Group, “the situation is expected to lead to increasing social tension as an ever growing portion of South Africa’s youth is excluded from participation in the economy.” It is therefore a matter of urgency that the country must find ways to reduce the current levels of youth unemployment with the provision of broader opportunities directly targeted at young people.

Where does the country go from here? During his SONA address, President Ramaphosa stated that will be implementing a comprehensive plan that will create no less than two million jobs within the next decade. “We are already working with the private sector to create pathways into work for young people through scaling up existing pathway management networks,” stated Ramaphosa.

One such pathway is the Youth Unemployment Services (YES) initiative, launched last year to help more than one million young participants of technical and vocational programmes find paid, work-based internships.

Offering incentives to companies who choose to hire young employees is a practical solution to the issue found by researchers from the University of Cape Town. In a statement, the University of Cape Town says that employers are “risk averse when it comes to hiring young people.” Researchers also found the recruitment process used to connect potential employers and young job-seekers to be largely inefficient.

Participation in the YES programme offers attractive incentives to prospective employers. If the qualifying criteria and pre-conditions for participation are met, entities can increase their overall B-BBEE status by up to two levels at the completion of YES-specific internship programmes. “YES training costs can be claimed up to 50% as part of the Skills Development element of the B-BBEE Scorecard” Shawn explains.

However, it is important to acknowledge that there are risks involved in companies aligning themselves to the YES Initiative, if not sufficiently equipped to do so. It is critical that interested parties have the technical experience and knowledge necessary to implement YES, and this can sometimes only be achieved with the external services of a BEE-facilitation provider. “YES employees cannot simply be seen as a point on a scorecard, they must be fully absorbed into the company at the end of the 12 month fixed period, and must be adequately trained prior to ensure that they are productive and knowledgeable”.

Incentives for companies aside, the core purpose of the YES initiative remains as a practical pathway to securing steady, long-term employment for young South Africans.

Interested in seeing if you qualify for the YES initiative?

• YES employment opportunities are specifically new positions that must be categorised as ‘Fixed term’ or ‘Temporary employment’ for a minimum of a 12 month period.

• Youth employees must be black and between the ages of 18 and 35.

• The YES B-BBEE benefit can be claimed at your financial year end with the help of your verification agency

• Note: to qualify, your company must also achieve an average score of at least a 50% across your entity’s 3 Priority Elements (Ownership, ESD, SD)

Regardless of whether your company has capacity for new hires, you can still give the gift of education and by aligning this to the YES initiative your company reaps additional youth subsidies and rebates. “LFP Group has aligned our learnerships to the YES Program for maximum incentives. We support youth empowerment whole heartedly and are dedicated to helping eradicate youth unemployment through our compliant service offering” concludes Shawn.