As of the first quarter of 2025, a staggering 46.1% of young South Africans aged 15-34 did not have jobs. Many young people would like to enter the workplace, but they face a paradox: they can’t secure employment without experience, but they can’t gain experience without a job.
In June, to commemorate Youth Month, Trialogue hosted a webinar on how companies can play a more active role in helping to bridge this gap. The panellists included Nodidi Mehlomakulu (Group Transformation Business Partner, Sanlam), Thabo Moloi (Head of Business Development, Youth Employment Service), Andrew Levy (Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer, Umuzi), and Siphesihle Manana (Technical Administrator, Trialogue).
Solving the ‘work experience’ conundrum
Levy noted that although South Africa achieved democracy more than 30 years ago, economic freedom has not followed, and we have a large number of talented, tenacious young people who struggle to fulfil their potential as they remain “have nots” with no social safety net allowing them to “fail upwards’”.
Levy noted that skills can be taught, and artificial intelligence (AI) can replace skills, so value in the workplace often equates to experience. Umuzi, a nonprofit that builds high-value learning-to-earning pathways, has launched The Experience Lab with the National Pathways Management Network (NPMN) and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) as a “last-mile accelerator for young people with skills who need experience,” said Levy.
Umuzi targets small businesses and the informal sector – areas often overlooked in formal youth employment programmes – and focuses on digital skills, the green economy, and now also agriculture (a sector in which matric certificates are often not a prerequisite). The Experience Lab supports entrepreneurs with digital tools to help them run and grow their businesses, helping them achieve professional recognition to build “experience markers” for their CVs.
Unfortunately, many companies have become desensitised to the youth unemployment problem, said Levy, adding that they “see it as a tax and not an investment” – but programmes like The Experience Lab can ease the pathway of these youngsters into the workplace, providing benefits to both young employees and the business.
How companies can invest in young people
Trialogue’s technical administrator, Siphesihle Manana, shared her very personal journey from matriculation to employment. She couldn’t study information technology – her first choice – so studied part-time at UNISA while trying to enter the WeThinkCode programme. This took many years, but she persevered and finally secured a place in 2020. WeThinkCode then found her a four-month internship at Trialogue, which was followed by a second internship and, eventually, a full-time job.
“The internship was very important – it gave me a real taste of the working world,” Manana noted. “I learnt how to work in a team, meet deadlines, and become more professional. The transition from being a student to being an employee was a deeply rewarding journey – it taught me how to be resilient and stay the course.”
There are many young people like Manana, said Levy – and there is a cost to business for failing to develop this social capital. Mehlomakulu agreed, indicating that CSI is “an investment in our communities”.
She urged companies to “rally together” to close the gap between education and skills (as Sanlam does by working with sector training and education authority [SETA] bodies). Sanlam collaborates with educational institutions, NPOs and government through strategic partnerships, including the Youth Employment Service (YES). Their initiatives focus on building a “pipeline for work-ready youth and entrepreneurs” by identifying skills gaps and providing targeted training in areas like digital skills. “You can’t all get jobs through internships – but if we create entrepreneurs, they will in turn create jobs for others,” she said.
Sanlam also assists with mentorship, coaching and imparting ‘soft skills’. “We roll out programmes that help to develop young people’s confidence, workplace etiquette, and soft skills – an important component of employability. Young people struggle to get a foot in the door – but they lack access, exposure and support, not skills and ability,” Mehlomakulu pointed out.
It is also important to identify sectors in which youth can play a key role. Sanlam founded the Youth4Tourism initiative, with YES and other corporate partners, to create future-facing jobs for youth in the tourism sector. “It’s about creating a collaborative ecosystem where education meets industry needs, empowering youth with skills and opportunities to thrive in the workplace,” said Mehlomakulu. “We need a collaborative model that fosters an ecosystem in which students can transition more effectively from education to employment – and companies will benefit from this more diverse, prepared and future-ready talent pool.”
Strategies to incentivise companies
Companies can be incentivised to employ young people, said Moloi, who noted that those businesses registered in the YES programme can increase their B-BBEE status by up to two levels.
Moloi detailed how YES works as an intermediary, connecting the private sector with unemployed youth. By offering a powerful B-BBEE incentive, YES encourages businesses to create 12-month quality work experiences. For companies that are already Level 1 on the scorecard, YES has refined its value proposition to focus on tangible business benefits, such as building a talent pipeline (some partners absorb 80% of the YES interns), meeting ESG mandates to attract investors, and qualifying for government’s Trusted Employer Scheme to expedite visa applications.
YES partners with businesses, either placing youth directly into the companies or through implementation partners. Companies can sponsor placements in their own organisation or support placements in key growth sectors identified by YES.
“We’ve identified strategic sectors that are future-facing and can place the youth on their behalf. We give most deserving unemployed youth quality work experience so they can participate more meaningfully in the economy,” Moloi said.
The employment service is on the demand side of the equation, working with the private sector to place youth in the right positions, but there’s a gap to ensure that skills match what’s needed by companies, said Moloi. With 1 900 companies enabling YES, the nonprofit has been able to provide close to 190 000 quality 12-month work experiences since the inception of the programme, deploying about R10bn in salaries.
“About 45% of the youth go on to participate in the economy after exiting our programme, and about 17% go on to start their own businesses,” Moloi noted. He added that around 40% of YES alumni come from grant recipient households and two out of three of these young people have dependents, so giving them a job not only changes their lives – it transforms entire communities. The programmes are underpinned by rigorous M&E.
Levy indicated that 85% of young people who have gone through the Umuzi programme have retained a job continuously – but what he is most proud of is a WhatsApp group called ‘Job opportunities’, where alumni share work opportunities with learners in the ecosystem. “It’s not high-tech, but it showcases that value is created in a shared environment – together, we are collectively responsible for the change we want to see,” he said.
This includes reaching youth in rural areas, where unemployment is often more pervasive than it is in big cities. The programmes also meet youth where they are – for example, leveraging the skills of a TikTok influencer who made videos about how difficult it was to get into the Umuzi programme, but who is now part of Umuzi’s social media team. “Young people don’t come with nothing – they come with so much,” Levy noted, indicating the hidden skills employers often overlook in young people.
Final recommendations
In closing, each panellist provided final words of advice for corporates and NPOs.
Mehlomakulu made a direct appeal for collective action. “Let’s all invest in our youth and collaborate – organisations need to work together to fight the plague of youth unemployment, and collaboration is key,” she noted.
Moloi challenged business leaders to make solving youth employment part of their business strategy. “Make sure you keep an empty chair in the board meeting representing the missing youth,” he said. “The economy grows when we make youth employment part and parcel of our business strategies.”
Manana offered a crucial reminder from the perspective of young people themselves: “Include the youth as partners and not just beneficiaries. Young people are very resourceful and can contribute towards building programmes.”
Watch the full webinar
Youth unemployment | South African solutions:
- Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI): The government’s flagship initiative to tackle youth unemployment by helping youth to transition from learning to earning. A multi-stakeholder initiative with a project management office in the Presidency, and key government departments and agencies leading the implementation on initiatives including:
- National Pathway Management Network (NPMN): A digital platform (SAYouth.mobi) that connects young people to job opportunities, learnerships, and support services and is supported by Harambee and the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA). As at the end of December 2024, 4.2 million users had registered – and 1.6 million earning opportunities were accessed by end June 2025.
- Employment Services of South Africa (ESSA): A platform within the Department of Employment and Labour that connects young people with job opportunities and resources for employment, further learning, and self-employment.
- Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI): Places young people as education assistants and general school assistants in public schools. Over 1.1 million youth placed to date.
- Social Employment Fund (SEF): Supports work that serves the public good – like early childhood development, community safety, and local food systems – through partnerships with civil society and social enterprises. Created over 140 000 jobs by October 2024.
- Presidential Youth Service (PYS): Encourages civic engagement by placing youth in community service roles, such as health outreach, environmental clean-ups, and food security projects, while building transferable skill
- Jobs Boost Outcomes Fund: A R300m initiative launched in November 2023 that focuses on creating employment opportunities in areas such as digital inclusion, enterprise development and work-integrated learning.
- Jobs Fund: A public-private partnership launched in 2011 by South Africa’s National Treasury, providing once-off, co-financed grants to innovative projects that aim to create sustainable employment. The Jobs Fund has created over 210 000 permanent and 114 000 temporary jobs since then.
- Youth Employment Service (YES): The largest private-sector-led youth employment initiative in Africa. YES partners with over 1 900 businesses to provide 12-month full-time work experiences and has created over 190 000 such work experiences to date.
Find out more
The key to unlocking youth unemployment – a panel discussion from the 2024 Trialogue Business in Society Conference.
Breaking the barriers to youth employment – a panel discussion from the 2025 Trialogue Business in Society Conference.
The YES programme and youth employment – a Viewpoint by Ravi Naidoo, CEO of YES, in the 2022 Trialogue Business in Society Handbook.
