A young man came to us for help yesterday. His old, worn out ID book was missing the top corner (and the last digit of his identity number). We were impressed with his whole demeanour which spoke of cleanliness and enthusiasm, unlike some encounters with him in the past. What had made the difference? The hope that a job (for which he needed an updated identity document) might be his.
He is one of the young, NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) South Africans. The NEET category is of great concern to anyone who hears of it, especially if you are connected to and affected by someone unfortunate enough to find herself/himself there.
If something creative isn’t done about NEET on the national level, it is going to affect all of us!
NEET is covered in many quarters, not least a recent International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Country Focus “Six Charts Explain South Africa’s Inequality“. The fifth of these identifies high unemployment as being a major factor sustaining the inequality levels. The country’s unemployment is significantly higher than the average emerging market’s, and spectacularly so when it comes to youth unemployment – 53% to the average 16%!
The Country Focus urges:
- the creation of more low-skilled jobs “to improve labour force participation, especially in the poorest provinces”;
- improving the quality of education; and
- facilitating affordable transportation to job centres.
It is against this backdrop that we took great pleasure in reading about the prominence given to youth unemployment when South African President Cyril Ramaphosa hosted German Chancellor Angela Merkel on an official visit on Thursday, at the Union Buildings, in Tshwane. The two signed a joint initiative on the promotion of vocational training, the aim of which is to tackle the high unemployment rate in South Africa. “We have to make sure that young people transition from learning to earning at a much faster rate,” President Ramaphosa said. He linked the joint initiative to government’s Presidential Youth Employment Intervention.
The other area of co-operation is energy supply with particular focus on renewable energy. A grim smile for us as we face another round of load shedding.
Relevant pages on Agribook.Digital include “Careers and employment in agriculture” and “Renewable and alternative energy“.
