The Youth Employment Service (YES) will improve young people’s prospects of finding employment and would help to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy according to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Ramaphosa spoke at the launch of the Youth Employment Service, an initiative between business, government, labour, civil society and young people, at the Riverside Incubation Hub in Fourways, Johannesburg.

What You Need To Know About the Youth Employment Service:

1. Under the programme, businesses will create one-year paid positions for youth aged between 18 and 35 with a minimum paid stipend of R3,500 a month.

2. Those businesses which do not have the capacity to place more people in their organisations have the option of sponsoring the salary for a one-year placement in small and medium enterprises or to help young people start and grow their own businesses through seed funding.

3. According to Ramaphosa, the Youth Employment Service was a timely, worthy and ambitious response to youth unemployment in the country. He believes the issue was perhaps the greatest and most pressing social and economic challenge facing South Africa at this moment in history.

4. Companies who have come forward to provide work experience opportunities to the first 100 YES participants, include Unilever, Sasol, Investec, ABSA, and Netcare.

5. Ramaphosa said during his State of the Nation Address last month that his administration would place the needs of and opportunities for young people at the centre of inclusive economic growth.

6. South Africa has an unemployment rate of around 27 percent, and the majority of the jobless are young people. The YES initiative is a partnership, led by Ramaphosa, between government, business, labour and civil society.

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– African News Agency (ANA)/ TYI

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