DRAFT REPORT OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON LABOUR ON PUBLIC
HEARINGS ON YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT, DATED:
The Portfolio Committee on Labour,
having conducted public hearings on youth unemployment on 30 May, and 2 and
The Committee believes that will
assist in engaging government on how the issue of youth unemployment could be
taken forward. It will also assist in
linking the findings of the Committee to the report of the ILO on global youth
unemployment and proposals that could be implemented in
The report includes findings and
proposals that were made from the inputs made by various stakeholders during
oversight visits to KwaZulu- Natal and the
The list of organisations that were
invited to make submissions on 30 May, and on 2 and 7 June is as follows:
* Department
of Labour;
* National Youth Commission;
* South African Youth Council;
* Disabled People of
*
* Umsobomvu Youth Fund; and
* Business Unity of
The following
stakeholders made oral submissions to the Committee:
* Quadriplegic
Association of
* Rural
Education Access Programme;
* Free
Market Foundation;
* Civil
Society Prison Reform Initiative;
* TUKS
Afrikaanse Studente;
* South
African Youth Council (
* Malamulela
Social Movement for the unemployed.
Inputs were also received from the
National Productivity Institute (NPI) and the following Sector Education and
Training Authorities (SETAs):
* BANKSETA;
* Services
SETA;
* Wholesale
& Retail SETA; and
* Insurance
SETA.
Input by the Department of Labour (DOL)
The DOL reported on its mandate of
enhancing skills development and overseeing other training legislation. The DOL, however, responded to some specific
questions that were raised by the Committee, to concerns and challenges raised
and the interventions that were reflected under each submission. It also drew to the attention of the
Committee and stakeholders the importance of participation by various
departments in responding to the problem of youth unemployment.
South African Youth Council (WC)
The
input by SAYC (
The
SAYC emphasised the importance of tapping into adequate resources towards
training. It stressed the need for all
spheres of government to tackle the issue of unemployment robustly by providing
financial assistance to youth who would like take ownership of certain
programmes. More resources needed to be made available to rural areas.
Quadriplegic Association of SA
(QASA) and Disabled People of
The
submission by QUASA emphasised the challenges faced by South African
individuals with mobility-impairment and the research that was conducted by
QASA and the Education, Training and Development Practices (ETDP) SETA to
determine the needs perceptions and challenges that needed to be addressed in
order to ensure full integration of mobility-impaired individuals into the
workplace. QASA noted certain interventions that could be made by various
government departments. It welcomed that
inclusion of disability minimum criteria in employment. It noted the exclusion of disability in Black
Economic Empowerment (BEE) legislation.
QASA
acknowledged that although some of its members were integrated into jobs, these
were mainly based in call centres, reception work. The concern was that the disabled youth might
perceive these types of jobs as being the ceiling and might not aspire to
higher levels of employment.
A
concern was raised around the inability by the Department of Health not
attended adequately to rehabilitation, and the projects by the Department of
Social Development (DSD) that proved to be unsuccessful. An appeal was made to the Committee to interact
with the relevant department to ensure that these concerns were addressed. It was also noted that many disabled people
feared that if they entered the job market and failed, they would lose their
disability grants. There was a concern
that although the legal framework was in place, progress in terms of its
enforcement was slow.
The
input by DPSA raised some concerns around the impediments such as lack of
exposure to the world of work and the high rate of illiteracy among the
disabled youth.
The
DOL indicated that the loss of grants by disabled people was a serious issue
that would be raised with the relevant departments. It also acknowledged that the allocation of
funding for the disabled might not be sufficient.
Proposals made:
* There was a need to improve data
collection in respect of disability.
* There should be an
improvement in the willingness by employers to comply with the National Skills
Development Strategy (NSDS) and the Skills Development Act (SDA).
* There should be an
increase in momentum for the public service to reach the 2% target by 2015.
* There should be a
change in the negative perceptions of employers about disability.
* Communication of
critical information could assist in enhancing the partnerships between SETAs
and associations representing people with disabilities.
* There was a need to
fast-track the system of integrating skills development and ensure that SETAs
develop learnership programmes that would give opportunities to young people
with disabilities.
The
DOL stressed that more work needed to done on its involvement in the municipal
Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) to ensure that people with disability were
integrated. It also called for the
government to exercise greater enforcement over legislation to ensure that
people with disabilities were not discriminated against. Government needed to move faster in ensuring
accessibility of the disabled to transport and buildings.
The
Committee registered its concern around government departments that did not
comply with minimum targets on equity and disability. It agreed that issues raised that affects the
Departments of Health, of Transport, of Social Development and of the
Department Public Works should be raised the relevant portfolio committees. It
proposed a need to ascertain whether the databases on unemployed included
statistics of youth with disabilities.
It was also noted that
The
Committee further proposed that people with disabilities should be included in
the recruitment of Community Development Workers (CDWs) at local level. The promotion of the Codes and TAG s relating
to the employment of people with disabilities should be enhanced.
Umsobomvu Youth Fund (UYF)
The
UYF submitted challenges facing youth in getting full employment and
interventions to address such challenges.
It reiterated its commitment to working with other organisations,
especially in areas such as research. It
emphasised the importance of correlating the proposed interventions to
jobs.
Proposals made
* There is a need to increase or improve skills development
and education by improving employer involvement to
inform skills needs and participation in related programmes.
* There
should be an increase of self-employment through support to SMMEs and increase entrepreneurship education for self-employment.
* There
is a need to increase activation of second economy
initiatives such as Expanded Public Works Programme and National Youth Service
Programme.
* Government
should increase fixed and foreign direct
investment (in relation to ASGISA identified growth industries).
* There
is a need to evaluate the impact of labour
legislation and immigration.
* Support to historically disadvantaged universities should be
enhanced.
* Government should increase funding sources for students.
* Sector charters targets must be monitored.
Rural Education Access Programme
(REAP)
The
submission by REAP was on the work it did in supporting students from rural
areas to access support for higher education.
REAP suggested that wider access to higher education would benefit
long-term skills and employment issues.
The Committee received an input from a former student of REAP who made an
appeal to government to commit itself to ensuring that youth in rural areas had
access to state resources.
REAP
would like to expand its partnerships to include organisations or stakeholders
such as the National Productivity Institute (NPI), SETAs, UYF, and the National
Development Agency (NDA).
Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative (CSPRI)
The submission by CSPRI was on the
impact of imprisonment on youth accessing jobs, interventions and on proposals
that may assist in removing barriers that made it difficult for ex-offenders to
obtain work.
The disclosure of criminal records
created a barrier for young ex-offenders to access jobs. Although training provided by the Department
of Correctional Services (DCS) had proved of high quality, the concern remained
with the scale in which ex-offenders were engaged in formal education. The nature of certificates also worked
against them.
Proposals made:
* Future measures should be implemented to
prevent the youth from ending up in prisons.
* Efforts must be made to economically
integrate ex-offenders. This could be
facilitated by preparing potential employers and exposing them to prisoners
prior to their release.
* Structured relapse programmes could assist
released prisoners to adhere to a structured programme and reinforce skills and
qualities acquired during earlier intervention programmes.
* The DCS should focus its attention on
programmes that proved to be effective in preparing prisoners for life after
their release. It should also ensure
that ex-prisoners receive training and support services that would increase
their chances of economic integration.
Free Market Foundation (FMF)
The FMF submitted a proposal for a
two-year exemption certificate in respect of labour laws. This would be applicable to people who had
been unemployed for more that six months.
The proposed certificate would also entitle a person to work for any
small firm on whatever basis agreed upon with the employer. It called for a basic and simple written
contract that would exist as some form of protection for workers.
The idea of a proposed special
exemption certificate was not agreed t by most stakeholders at the
hearings. Some believed that the
proposal paid no heed to the imbalanced relationship between an established employer
and employee. It was also felt that the
proposal would detract from the role of government to protect employees in the
labour market. The DOL felt that the
proposal made by the FMF was contradictory to its view that labour laws should
be left as they were. It mentioned that
the Presidential Commission was appointed to examine the plight of small
business and focus on the impact of labour market legislation.
National Youth Commission (NYC)
The input by the NYC identified some
of the barriers that were contributing to youth unemployment as follows:
* The
lack of adequate skills;
* The
lack of support to engage young people in entrpreneurship programmes;
* The
lack of access to funding; and
* The
inability of linking economic growth to the demand in the labour market.
Proposals made:
* The government should develop a
comprehensive economic empowerment strategy for youth.
* The youth should have access to
funding in order to start up their own businesses.
* Various learning institutions, including
Further Education and Training colleges
and SETAs should develop training programmes that would prepare young people
for the demands of the labour market.
* The government, parastatals,
non-governmental organisations and development financial institutions should
develop internship programmes to address the lack of skills.
Findings:
* There seemed to be a lack of distinction on
what was done by the National Youth Commission and other institutions such
as Umsobomvu Youth Fund.
* The Employment Equity Act (EEA) did not
categorise youth as a designated group.
* The National Skills Development Strategy
had no mention of the National Youth Service.
* The
preferential procurement policy framework excluded young people.
* The increasing graduate unemployment
featured more among Blacks, Indians and Coloureds despite the policy of
affirmative action.
Recommendations
* The
DOL should look into the inclusion of youth in the EEA.
* All
government departments should have a youth directorate at a senior level.
* The Departments of Education and of
Labour should look into how career guidance programmes at high school could be
implemented to encourage young matriculants to follow curriculum streams that
would enable them to be employable.
* The Departments of Arts and Culture,
the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism should create employment
opportunities for young people.
Business Unity of
BUSA expressed its willingness in
supporting youth SMMES to broaden the base and encourage entrepreneurship. There was a need for SMMEs to be flexible in
response to the changing market conditions and needs of young people. Business expressed the need to change the
expectation that big business would absorb all young people who were coming out
of the education system, including those who were skilled and qualified.
Input by Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU),
Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) and National Council of Trade
Unions (NACTU)
The submission
made by COSATU, FEDUSA and NACTU was located in the context of the NEDLAC
Labour Declaration. It pointed out at
the criticisms have been levelled at the definitions of unemployment. It argued that the definition excludes discouraged
work-seekers who were no longer actively looking for work.
The
submission argued that there was a need for a holistic approach to addressing
unemployment, covering a range of strategies including, amongst others, those
directed at education, skills development, infrastructure development, an
accessible affordable public transport system, an effectively targeted public
works programme and a developmental comprehensive social security system that
acts as lever to employment.
The
submission noted that unemployment and underemployment are very high, workers
will tend to accept sub-standard employment and find it hard to organise. In
these circumstances, it becomes virtually impossible for government to protect
labour rights through administrative means, such as inspectorates.
It
was also noted that government, when addressing unemployment, should consider
the policies and factors that drive joblessness. These include the need for appropriate
industrial and trade policies that emphasise the creation of quality jobs.
Proposals made
* There
is a need for the government to increase momentum in the creation of decent,
well-paid and secure jobs on a mass scale. This must be linked to a development
strategy.
* The
government must act urgently against the speculative capital inflows that are
driving up the rand and devastating export industries, at the cost of tens of
thousands of jobs.
* There
must be no rise in interest rates, as this will have a negative impact on job
creation and retention.
* Casualisation of employment and outsourcing must
be minimised.
* The
government must fulfil its promise of providing jobs on a massive scale,
through public works programmes, to enable unemployed people to contribute to
their communities and earn a living.
* Young
people and workers must have equal access to education and skills.
* There
is a need to stop the European Union and the
* Employers
must eliminate discrimination based on race and gender in the workplace, as
well as discrimination against people infected and affected by HIV.
* Initiatives
pertaining to electricity restructuring, especially the establishment of
Regional Electricity Distributors (REDs), have had negative implications for
delivery of services and job losses. There should be an end to the process of establishing REDs and
IPPs in its current form.
* There is a need for supplementary social security for
those falling through this net, which should be combined with strategic
skilling or re-skilling programmes to lever workers back into employment. This
should provide a minimum safety net guaranteeing each household and person a
minimum income.
* There is a need to identify the skills required for
key sectors to maintain and expand production. That means identifying both
existing bottlenecks and the training outputs required to maintain the sector
by replacing existing skills in the coming years. In this context, concern is
raised in relation to the downsizing of key training programmes, notably
apprenticeships and education for the main public services and key
manufacturing sectors.
* There is a need to develop programmes that will
generate an increase in well-trained artisans with high-level skills, such as
machine tool operators, electricians, plumbers and welders. JIPSA should
develop realistic targets and define the role of the public sector, and
especially SOEs, to achieve these aims. SETA’s and FET colleges should identify
what apprenticeship programmes would be needed to avoid any surplus skills in a
particular field.
* There is a need to increase the number of graduates
and to ensure greater representivity among professional graduates as black
people, especially black women, are not adequately represented in these fields.
One suggestion is that JIPSA could develop a programme with clear key
performance indicators in terms of both representivity and overall numbers.
Implementation would then require close work with both employers and
universities. It would require, in particular, a massive increase both in
bridging programmes for historically disadvantaged individuals.
* SETAs should develop specific targets for learnerships based
on the required critical, core and scarce skills. Accepting Recognition of
Prior Learning (RPL) remains a significant obstacle. In meeting skills
shortages, urgent attention should be given to recognising years of experience,
as a form of vocational training that may not be formally recognised. Bridging
programmes could be developed to ensure that this is realised. JIPSA is an
important initiative and should be located within the context of defining a
macro-economic path that would promote skills improvement and meeting skill
shortages. It should also be located within a clear industrial strategy that
would grow sectors identified under the ASGISA initiative
Tuks Afrikaanse Studente (TAS)
The submission by TAS proposed for
the exemption from affirmative action of young white South Africans who were
born after
The Committee believed that a
further debate was needed around the proposals made with respect to the
exemption of young white South Africans
who were born after
Input by Services SETA
The input made by the Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) of the Services SETA highlighted some of the major
constraints that were contributing to youth not accessing full employment. He noted the poor quality of matric, FET
colleges and university training. Among
the impediments was the
“disproportionate sense of entitlement” among youth. However, the generalization around that issue
sparked debate by the Committee and other stakeholders. The CEO mentioned the general lack of respect
of elders or mentors, policies and programmes.
He noted the lack of respect of existing structures such as training
institutions, SETAs.
Proposals made:
* The SETAs should be required to work with FET
colleges to ensure that vocational training programmes are accredited by
Education and Training Quality Assurance (ETQA).
* There should be an after-learnership or
National Qualifications Framework (NQF) certificate employer incentive that
will enable them to keep young people in the working environment for at least a
period of two years. This would give
learners more opportunity to convince the employer that they should be offered
permanent employment.
Input by Insurance SETA
The Insurance SETA reiterated the
problem of numeracy and literacy levels.
Reference was made to a survey that was conducted in the insurance
sector which found that 52% of matriculants did not take maths. Out of the 48% that did mathematics, 21 %
failed. Only 5% had mathematics on the
higher grade.
The SETA proposed that there was a
need to ensure the infusion of work readiness training and proper career advice
within the schooling system.
Input by Wholesale and Retail (W&R) SETA
The W&RSETA intimated that one
of the main problems that were facing SETAs was the exit strategy from
learnerships. The W&R SETA had,
however, come up with a principle wherein it would only fund learneships that
guaranteed full employment to at least 90% of learners that completed learnership
programmes. This was well received by corporate
stakeholders.
The SETA had looked at the issue of
venture creation and had rolled out projects that were targeting rural youth,
especially those that would give business opportunities to learners.
The DOL acknowledged that exit
strategies were a challenge. It agreed
that it would be useful to to have locally developed strategies.
Input by the BANK SETA
The BANKSETA intimated that one of
the challenges facing young matriculants who did not possess entrance
requirements and graduates that lacked the relevant experience.
Input by Children’s Rights Project (CRP)
The input by CRP drew was based on
the use of children by adults or older children (CUBAC) to commit illicit
activities as one of the worst forms of child labour in South Africa. The CRP
noted that it is critical that investigations focus on finding adults and older
children who use children for illegal activities, particularly in the
production and trafficking of drugs and other related illegal
activities.
The CRP made a number of
recommendations pertaining to the ways in which children who commit crimes
should be dealt with. Of importance is the fact that it felt that it is
important that child offenders should be diverted away from prison. It further
noted that formal education or vocational training should be offered to all
children whose sentences involve deprivation of liberty, including those held
while awaiting trail.
The CRP also noted children should
be allowed to work while incarcerated.
It noted that work is preferable to children being bored and feeling
useless. However, policy should be
formulated on when children deprived of their liberty may be required to work,
and when such work should be remunerated.
The Department of
Labour (DoL) has a technical assistance project called “Towards the Elimination
of the Worst Forms of Child Labour” (TECL), which has been adopted by a wide
range of South African government departments including those responsible for
justice, social development, labour, education, safety and security and local
government, as well as by other agencies. TECL contracted
the Community Law Centre to undertake research on the nature, extent and causes
of the use of children by adults and other children for illegal activities.
Proposals made
* The Portfolio Committee on Labour needs to
liase with the Portfolio Committees on Education and Justice and Constitutional
Development on the implementation of
policies in order to ensure that the relevant Departments are planning,
budgeting and implementing programmes and policies that deal with the issues
raised in its submission.
* Parliament needs to exercise its oversight
role to call the various Departments to account on implementation of policies
as well as inter-sectoral co-operation and planning on the issue of youth and
unemployment and in ensuring employment as a means of crime prevention and
eliminating the use of children by adults to commit crime.
* Related government departments should
approach the International Labour Organisation for technical assistance in
dealing with eliminating child labour through the aforementioned TECL project.
Input by Black Sash
The Black Sash located its
submission within the context of the fact that
The Black Sash noted that more than
50% of the unemployed people in
The Black Sash attributes high rates
of unemployment to the failure of government policy and the protection of
private sector interests to accumulate profits. It notes that although
government has introduced the National Skills Development Strategy which has
resulted in more than 3 million workers successfully receiving training in
various skills and over 80 000 learners (mostly under the age of 35) obtaining
learnerships in various sectors over the course of the past 5 years, it has
barely scratched the surface of a deeper growing problem.
The Black Sash argued that
learnerships do not help the youth in the longer term as they merely create a
temporary platform for the youth to keep them busy. It maintains that there is
no existing strategy for young people in terms of getting jobs once they have
completed their learnerships. It pointed out that many companies use
learnerships merely to comply with the law without securing career paths for
learners who have completed their training programme.
The Black Sash argued that the
consequences of unemployment include the fact that millions of young people, in
particular young women, live in conditions of poverty, misery, hopelessness,
disease, violence, child abuse, crime, early pregnancy, forced sex work and
other social ills in a country which has ample economic resources.
Proposals
made
* The Youth Commission, Umsobomvu Youth
Fund and National Youth Development Policy Framework need to be reconstructed
with a view to developing a fresh mandate to specifically address the problem
of youth unemployment.
* Government should establish a National Youth Service Programme that will engage young people in a process of
providing services to the communities in which they live, while increasing
their own skills, education and opportunities to generate an income.
* A
minimum income will allow individuals to access places of employment, respond to
jobs adverts, start up small business etc
* Youth Service Programmes must include
a post-service component that actively supports young people to access economic
opportunities.
* Young people participating in Youth
Service Programmes must be provided with education and training. A stipend may
be paid to participants in order to facilitate their involvement in a
programme.
* Young people must be equipped to
start their own business and to provide employment both for themselves and for
others
Input by South African Graduate Development Association (SAGDA)
The submission by SAGDA explained
the nature, scope and challenges of youth specifically from a graduate
perspective. The submission outlined
SAGDA’s perceived gaps in legislation and job creation for youth with reference
to the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (ASGI-SA)
policy. It also looked at social and
entrepreneurship development as job creation strategies.
SAGDA was commissioned by the
Department of Science and Technology to develop a database management system
that would provide information about registered unemployed science and
technology graduates. This system would
be able to track people in terms of qualifications, places of origin or
provinces, etc. It would also be linked
to certain companies so that they could access the system. SAGDA would in future like to extend system
to include fields other than science- oriented ones.
The Committee wanted clarity on the
demographics of the organisation, the level of career advice students were
given to identify gaps in the job market and specific areas of study that had
the highest number of unemployed graduates.
The Committee was concerned about students who did not complete their
studies due to the lack of funds, especially in the science-related fields. The Committee expressed a need for SAGDA to
meet with organisations such as TAS to see how they could bridge the wide gap
between them.
Findings:
* There was little formal relationship
between SAGDA and institutions such as the UYF.
* The two databases that covered
unemployed youth differed in that SAGDA’s was specific to graduates, while the
youth portal had a broader mandate that covered all young people.
* SAGDA had not been able to use the
excel spreadsheet for maintaining its database.
This did not allow for easy access to locate graduates with particular
skills.
* The fragmentation of programmes
created problems for young people.
* Debts accrued from student loans were
a hindrance to young qualified graduates accessing jobs.
* The notion of job entitlement
hindered young people from taking advantage of other routes of employment.
* Limited resources were a barrier in
enabling SAGDA to engage with institutions such as GET, FET institutions.
* The lack of infrastructure had posed
difficulties for SAGDA to cater for all requests received in relation to
providing statistics on unemployed graduates.
* There were few learnerships that were
targeted at graduates except for project management and other related
management fields.
* Young Black graduates were
experiencing problems in accessing jobs, especially in the engineering and
information technology sectors.
Proposals made:
* Unemployed graduates could be used by
government to address backlogs in the public services, for examples, in
applications in the Departments of Social Development and Home Affairs.
* There was a need to a review of
courses provided by institutions of learning to check whether they were still
relevant to the needs of the economy.
* Points such as multi-purpose
community centres and advisory youth centres should be used to assist in
gathering of information.
* Graduates can be used to improve
matric results by providing tuitin sessions.
Proposals by the Committee
* The Committee should look into the
issue of labour brokers and their impact on vulnerable young people.
* There was a need to look into the
possibility of a lower exit age for workers to allow space for youth, yet
recognising the skills of experienced workers for training young people.
* There
was a need to look at how SAGDA could be linked to BUSA.
D. Inputs received from
* There was a growing number of young
people that were migrating to cities with the hope of finding jobs.
* The lack of infrastructure and
resources hinder young people, especially in rural areas from accessing
information.
* There was less progress made by
government departments with respect to programmess that could assist young
people in accessing jobs.
* The private sector had not
demonstrated sufficient effort in addressing the issue of youth unemployment.
Proposal made
* Youth programmes should be channeled
to local and district municipalities.
There should be a link between local and district municipalities’ IDPs
and Provincial Economic Development Programmes (PEDPs).
* All
youth programmes should not be urban biased.
* Government should create programmes
that would enable the youth to access business opportunities.
* There must be proper monitoring of
all government-funded structures that were meant to assist in youth development.
* Government should look into the
possibility of establishing call centres that would specifically deal with
youth development matters.
* The UYF and SETAs should be more
visible in rural areas.
* Government should provide special
vehicles that would provide reliable information on how youth could access the
labour market.
* The province, apart from its high
rural proportion, had a high rate of youth unemployment.
* Out of 30 011 young people that were
registered as job seekers during 2004-05, only 1 134 were placed.
* There was a lack of co-operation
between the NYC, SAYC, UYF, municipalities and governments with respect to
youth programmes.
* There was a lack of awareness by
municipalities about skilled young incumbents that were produced by technikons
and FET colleges.
* There was still a lack of clarity
about the meaning of “scarce skills”.
* The demand of relevant experience in
order to access the labour market posed a major challenge to young people.
* The growing economy did not create
employment opportunities, especially for youth.
* Globalisation and technological
changes necessitated continuous skills development programmes to meet the new
skills required by the economy.
* Courses such as property evaluation
were only offered by the University of South Africa (UNISA).
* Access to higher education was
expensive and unaffordable.
* Employers, SMMEs, including
government departments and municipalities, were not well oriented with
learnership programmes.
* There was a lack of co-ordination of
SETAs in the province.
* There were problems in FET colleges
registering as service providers.
The Committee was concerned that
young people were not being capacitated to become service providers. It suggested that the DOL should have a dedicated
programme that would look at capacitating young people to become service
providers. The Committee recommended
that the decentralisation of SETAs needed to be sped up. The DOL should formalise the issue of
volunteerism.
Proposals made
* The Departments of Labour and
Education should look into the issue of qualifications and skills that did not
correspond with the needs of the economy.
* The curriculum of tertiary
institutions should be scrutinised to check its relevance to the economy.
* The DOL should evaluate the NSDS on a
regular basis and identify its strengths and weaknesses.
* A learnership in property evaluation
should be designed in order to reduce the long duration for the acquisition of
a diploma.
* The intensification of skills development
efforts must be underpinned by private-public partnerships (PPPs).
* Youth should be exposed to mentoring
and encouraged to volunteer work experience. Assistance should be given to
volunteers on how to market themselves for employment opportunities.
* The UYF should play a meaningful role
in equipping youth in accessing some job requirements such as driver’s
licences, entrepreneurship skills, as well as access to funding.
* There must be a meaning collaboration
between business, educational institutions, the DOL and funding institutions to
create co-operatives and joint ventures that would assist in creating jobs for
young people.
* There was a need to attract big
business to the
* There was a need to lobby the private
sector to ensure that their social investment programmes were directed towards
assisting young people in educating young people.
* The DOL should monitor SMMEs and
orientate them on learnerships.
Input from the higher education perspective
* Traditional higher education was too
disconnected from the world of work.
* Learners did not acquire the
necessary skills, knowledge and attitudes to prepare them for the world of
work.
* Higher education had become too one
dimensional. Students have lost their
ability to contribute to it because many university programmes were redesigned
to become more skills oriented.
* There was a growing belief that
graduates did not bring a particular level of skill. They often had to be trained on the job.
* The challenge was not to choose
between theory and practice, but rather to think the way in which theory and
practice could be linked in the student learning experience.
* Research had proven that employers
were indeed becoming more wary of the product of both the school and higher
education systems. With respect to
higher education, research had shown that employers were of the opinion that
graduates lacked problem-solving skills, flexibility and or adaptability,
putting theory into practice and extracting theory out of practice, and lacked
creative thinking ability.
Proposals made:
* The DOL should work with local
research agencies to promote a culture of using local knowledge and information
to analyse market and social needs.
* The DOL should work with the
Department of Social Development to promote the socio-economic profiling of
local communities. This would enable
local government and development agencies to identify local needs and challenges. This should also inform service provision,
development planning and skills development in local communities.
* The DOL should work with the
Department of Education on local and district levels to encourage schools to
give learners more exposure to the world of work through their school career.
* The DOL should encourage schools and
pos-school institutions to make more time for life-skills development that were
linked to personal and career development of individual learners.
Input by DOL
General Recommendations by the Committee:
CONCLUSION