Introduction section one 6

Review of the types of interventions generally used to link young people to employment in South Africa

This section of the report considers the nature of the interventions that are currently being implemented in South Africa and an analysis of the learning emanating from the interventions that have already been implemented, highlighting some examples of good practices that have emerged from this process.

This relies on an extensive review of the interventions implemented in South Africa. Methodologically this included accessing as many evaluations of programmes that the research team could, reviewing these, and then follow up interviews with individuals in some of these programmes in order to clarify certain issues that emerged from the evaluation and to explore certain issues in more depth. In addition, the team interviewed individuals from organisations, which have been intensely involved in designing, resourcing and implementing programmes for unemployed young people over the past decade in order to explore the learning that has been developed through these processes. Particular attention was paid to understanding the factors that are perceived to enable young people to make the anticipated transition (A detailed review table can be found in Annexure A.)
This took into account the issues raised in the previous sections of this report, which outlined the many, and diverse, reasons why young people struggle to access the labour market in South Africa, as well as some of the policy interventions, which have been developed, by different role players, to respond to these. Across all sectors of society, there is a recognition that South Africa cannot continue to have generations of young people who complete their schooling and are then disconnected from any opportunity to generate an income. Some key issues emerging from this policy analysis suggests that to address this challenge there is a need to ensure that the following is in place:

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  Incentives for employers to overcome their reluctance to employ school leavers
  
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  Greater investment in ensuring that young people leaving school have the attitudes and skills which better equip them to take up available opportunities
  
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  Publicly funded interventions to engage young people in constructive activities while the number of formal jobs remain inadequate to absorb all work seekers
  
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  Greater development of an entrepreneurial capacity, will create support for young people.
  

Critically, there is the constant caveat inserted, that for any youth employability interventions to succeed it is necessary for the economy to grow in a manner that absorbs greater numbers of workers.

This analysis found that interventions to address these imperatives could generally be categorised in the following manner:

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  Those that focus on improving the ability of secondary school learners to make a transition into further learning and the workplace
  
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  Those that enhance the work readiness of young people and support the placement of young people
  
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  Those that support the development of occupational competence
  
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  Those that enable entrepreneurial development
  
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  Those that create public employment opportunities.
  

1. Interventions: Programmes to address the transition to the labour market

   1. Secondary School Interventions

Programmes aimed at improving secondary school learner competence which were reviewed, focused primarily on improving learners abilities in maths and science and in entrepreneurial education (which tends to focus on understanding what is required and developing entrepreneurial attitudes).

For example, the National Youth Development Agency explored several ways of improving maths competence particularly for matriculants. In some programmes, they contracted organisations with subject matter expertise, and deployed them to both improve the capacity of class room teachers and to provide extra curricula support for learners. In one programme, student teachers were recruited from a university and placed in schools to provide additional support to teachers. The evaluation of this programme pointed to learning that was acquired through its implementation. This includes the finding that there was initially resistance from classroom teachers to having outside trainers monitoring their work. However, the evaluation suggested that in cases where the principals and senior teachers embraced the programme there was a substantial improvement in both the performance of the teachers, and learners’ confidence in the subject. Further, it was found that in many cases the programme only gained momentum in the latter half of the year, and while learners indicated they found the support useful, and believed they had improved their knowledge and confidence to engage with the subject, the time was insufficient to substantially improve exam performance. This highlighted the need to consider the lead time for the programme more carefully in the future so that this can be accommodated in the programme design.
In another example, in the Investec Pro Maths programme, (supported by Investec) which has been working incrementally in more and more schools since 2005, it was suggested that for a maths support programme to be effective, it should begin in Grade 10. Their programme requires learners to attend additional classes from Grade 10: the frequency of these classes increase each year and by Grade 12 the learners are attending three extra classes (which are held during the week and on the weekend). Evaluations of these programme show exceptional improvements in the results of the learners: it was found that while they averaged 20% in their Grade 9 exams they successfully passed in matric – in many cases achieving high marks in their exams. The evaluation conducted also points to the finding that because the programme has run continuously for several years the staff has become increasingly engaged and relationships of trust have been developed. The presence of the programme over time has also meant that learners in lower grades have a high level of awareness of the benefits of the programme and so are enthusiastic about becoming involved in the programme by the time they reach Grade 10.
Another interesting example, which highlights the extent to which school support programmes can be integrated into longer term interventions that focus on employment, is that of Go for Gold. This programme is an integrated, four-phased programme: at a high school level it supports Grade 11 and 12 learners with mathematics, science, life skills and computer skills development. This is then followed by a one-year job shadowing/internship in the Built environment (that is, the construction sector). Learners can then enter either learnerships or tertiary education in preparation for careers in the Built environment and ultimately those that succeed access employment in the Built environment. This programme found that it was best to work with Grade 11 learners as this was early enough to have an impact but late enough for the young people to be able to decide whether they wished to pursue this route. It has been found that these students are very motivated and there is a very high level of completion at all levels of the programme.
Over and above support with mathematics, science, languages and life skills it was also found that there were programmes that focused on developing an entrepreneurial attitude in the schools. For example, the NYDA has also supported programmes which aim to raise the awareness of learners about opportunities to start their own businesses and to gain some practical experience of the skills required for this to succeed. Several interventions were run with multiple schools in two provinces. A service provider experienced in entrepreneurial education developed the learning programme, and ran classes with secondary school learners, which required learners to research and set up entrepreneurial initiatives. The evaluations found that learners had significantly improved their awareness of small business activities in their community, their confidence to explore such an activity, and in some cases learners started income generating projects that continued to supplement their household incomes while they were at school.
Another such intervention has been implemented by the South African Institute for Entrepreneurship (SAIE), which was started by the Triple Trust Organisation (TTO) in 1996 “in recognition of the critical need for easily accessible financial literacy training materials for both the small enterprise sector and for schools”²⁰. The SAIE aims to eradicate poverty by creating entrepreneurs through the participation of learners in the BusinessVENTURES schools programme. Individuals from the programme state that the programme was initiated in schools because they “believe a Grade 12 learner exiting school should be entrepreneurial, they do not have to start a business necessarily. The overall aim of the programme is to change mindsets, but can you teach a learner to change their mindset? We say this is difficult to do and in order to change mindsets the teaching styles and learning styles must change. Our materials have tools, which build learner independence, which is an important entrepreneurial habit. In a classroom the teachers drive the learning experience and what we have done is provide tools that sees the learner taking on some control of learning. The teacher then becomes a facilitator, guiding learning, as opposed to doing the traditional talk-and-chalk, teacher-centred approach”. It was explained that the SAIE has designed and developed over time a pack of entrepreneurial materials, which are fully integrated with the DOE’s curriculum for EMS and Business Studies and aligned with CAPS for learners in Grades 7-12. It was indicated that previously they worked in all grades but EMS has been removed as a subject for lower grades and so they now focus on Grades 7-12. SAIE has tracked learners who used the SAIE materials and have completed Grade 12 and found the following impact: 65% of learners pursue further studies in commerce and they further indicate that ultimately 58% of learners pursue self employment (though it would appear from the data that some that pursue this option do this out of necessity rather than as an opportunity-driven decision).

2. Work Readiness and Placement programmes

The cluster of programmes that fall into this category tend to provide young people with information and advice on opportunities. Some provide work readiness training, others also assist the person to identify the opportunities for which they are most suited. Some place young people in a work opportunity (which could be in a job or for a fixed period of time) so that they can obtain experience and develop the skills required for the work place. They have varied target groups: open to all, minimum of a matric, minimum a post-schooling qualification. These programmes include those that were reviewed as part of previous research completed by the UNDP/ILO/NYDA and DoL by Budlender (2012) and these findings have been integrated into this report where relevant.

The field of work readiness and placement programmes is increasingly seen as important: although, as illustrated by the research, many employers prefer informal employee search mechanisms, employment centres can serve as information clearing houses to lower the search costs for employers and employees and to increase the quality of job matches. In the most basic centres employers post job openings and jobseekers reply directly to employers of interest. A more comprehensive full-service centre could employ staff that sort though job applications and interview potential employees on behalf of the employer. Other services could be offered to potential employees such as developing training plans, skills development opportunities and to help young work seekers manage competing work and non-work demands (Wurmli, 2010).
Public Employment Services (PES) aimed at improving job-search efficiency and job-matching within the labour market have been put in place in South Africa to target the disadvantaged and the long-term unemployed. The Public Employment Services are framed by the Employment Service Bill (published in the Government Gazette No. 35844, 2 November 2012), which sets out specific provisions to assist young work seekers to find employment, including the following: Providing opportunities for new entrants to the labour market to gain work experience (Section 2(1) c); promoting employment of youth and other vulnerable work seekers by establishing work schemes for the purpose of enabling youth to enter employment, remain in employment or be placed in opportunities for self-employment (Section 6(1)); and providing vocational and career counselling, (Section 5(2)).
The Department of Labour gives practical effect to this legislation through its employer services, which registers vacancies and provides placement services for work seekers and the unemployed through access points at local labour offices. Some of these centres also offer counselling to work seekers although counsellors are not available in all centres.
South Africa has around 135 Public Employment Services known as Labour Centres spread throughout the country. However, it is not clear the extent to which these do, or even could expect to, affect employment: research by Bhorat (2012) suggests that there is no such relationship between per capita labour centre expenditure and the unemployment rate within districts. This finding may relate to the reality that, despite the Bill, there is significant under-investment in South Africa. Comparisons across a handful of countries show that South Africa spends the least in this area. For example, in relative terms, this amounts to 76 times less expenditure on Public Employment Services than South Africa’s middle-income country counterpart – Brazil (Developing an appropriate Public Employment Service model for South Africa, March 2010, Research undertaken by Singizi/DPRU for the Department of Labour, commissioned by GIZ).
The National Youth Development Agency is a youth service agency, which is established by the NYDA Act, 2008 (Act 54 of 2008). Its funding is primarily from government and it provides a number of services that aim to facilitate the job search and match jobs to the requirements and skills of young work seekers. NYDA is a national organisation but it also has a provincial presence. Each province has a board, which has its own full-time chairperson. The chairperson may, among other tasks, try to source opportunities through engaging with business leaders and political leaders. In addition, there are full-time employees who have overall responsibility for the database and also actively source opportunities through engaging with companies.
NYDA supports the Graduate Development Programme and Job Preparation Programme, which aim to enhance the employability of jobless graduates and matriculants by providing job preparation, for example work related life skills, computer literacy, CV preparation, interview skills etcetera as well as job development support that helps young people find work placements.
NYDA also supports 14 Youth Advisory Centres, which are walk-in centres established within communities as a one-stop service centre where young people can access all NYDA products and services including career counselling. There is no charge to either youth or employers for the service.
The process of application for a job involves two steps. Firstly, a young person must complete a beneficiary profile. NYDA’s customer relationships management (CRM) system then checks whether the person is eligible (for example, that they are under 35 years of age and that they are either South African or a permanent residence). If eligible, the youth can complete a job application form or apply for some other form of assistance such as microfinance or business assistance. These tasks can be completed by visiting one of the 14 branches, faxing or emailing their curriculum vitae to the NYDA, or even by phone. In the report by Budlender it is indicated that NYDA also hope to provide on-line registration.
Currently, some of the 14 youth advisory centres do not have JOBS officers. In a review of these centres, Budlender states that the absence of JOBS officers causes delays in attending to work seekers as well as in inputting their information on the database. Thus NYDA reportedly has 6 000 curriculum vitae across the 14 centres, but not all of these are in the CRM system. It was further indicated that while all but one of the branches have four or more computers that youth can use free of charge to input their information, the reality is that the level of computer literacy tends to be low and there is reportedly no one from the NYDA to assist. NYDA staff members also indicate that computers are not sufficient when youth arrive in groups. A further challenge is that whilst previously the CRM system was able to match youth and opportunities, after changes were made to the system this is no longer possible. NYDA staff members therefore have to use the search facility to find matches.
It was explained that where an opportunity arises, the general rule is that the names and details of approximately three youth are put forward to the employer for each opportunity. The CRM system generates monthly reports, which show placements. These placements are recognised where there is a written confirmation letter from the employer and an indication that some sort of payment will be made to the young person. NYDA observes that they are concerned about the potential geographical and urban-rural bias in that it is much easier to find employment in urban areas.
NYDA has piloted certain initiatives with the Department of Labour Public Employment Services, and there are examples in which NYDA provides specific support for young people that enter the public employment centres.
Other placement services that are in place include those run by SAGDA. which has as its mission: “to develop students [to] prepare for the world of work and empower graduates to actively participate in the economy through high impact programs, viable partnerships and research” (Maqubela, 2012). Budlender, in her review of SAGDA, indicates that the Association was registered in 1997 as a Section 21 company. An unemployed graduate initiated the association, as a vehicle to assist other unemployed young graduates: the Nedbank Foundation provided assistance in the form of an office, furniture, telephone and similar assistance. The Foundation also subsequently provided stipends for office bearers of the Association. SAGDA currently has an office in Johannesburg, and is in the process of finalising a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Labour, which would allow SAGDA to use their offices. SAGDA is also in the process of developing a memorandum of understanding with the Development Bank of Southern Africa for use of their Stellenbosch-based telecentre infrastructure and technology.
One of SAGDA’s first initiatives was to establish a database of unemployed youth. The numbers registered on the database remained relatively small until 2010 when SAGDA developed a memorandum and articles of association that established it formally as a membership organisation. Budlender reports that at the time of the research, there were more than 2 200 graduates on the database from 2010, 2011 and 2012 (although it was indicated that this number includes some duplicates).
The graduates registered on the database are beneficiaries rather than members. They receive free services. The members, who pay fees for membership, are divided into five categories, namely universities, public and private colleges, municipalities, companies, and sector education and training authorities (SETAs). There are three categories of membership – primary, secondary and tertiary – with different benefits. Primary members, for example, can serve on the board of directors, can receive 100 copies of the quarterly Top Graduate publication, and can get access to a maximum of 100 graduates for placement. Membership fees are set at R20 000 per annum for primary membership, R15 000 for secondary and R10 000 tertiary.
Budlender comments that one of the characteristics that distinguish this database from the others is SAGDA’s commitment to providing assistance, to those who register, within three months of registration. However, despite this, only a relatively small proportion of those who register find a placement in this period and by end September 2012 SAGDA had succeeded in placing a total of only 154 graduates since January of the same year (Maqubela, 2012). The registered graduates are, however, assessed using an assessment form as well as, at least in some cases, through meeting with the resident psychologist and career advisor. Budlender indicates that based on the assessment, they should have, within the 3 month time frame, received some assistance. This could include access to a graduate empowerment seminar, being assisted in determining their desired career path, or receiving training in business writing, communication, and business ethics. They may also be placed in an internship programme, which earns them a stipend and provides exposure to, and experience in, a workplace. It is indicated that SAGDA also aims to provide further support once graduates are placed: this could include assistance in finding a further job (if it’s an internship) as well as access to industry- and occupation-specific talks.
In addition several other graduate development programmes supported by NYDA were also reviewed. These programmes engaged young people who had undertaken tertiary studies in interventions designed to increase their ability to find employment. Some specifically aimed to give people the professional experience they required in order to register with professional bodies; others sought to provide graduates with work experience, and some of the generic skills (such as computer training, a driver’s licence and the attributes desirable in the work place), which make people more employable. Others provided work experience and weekly classes where graduates would review learning questions, which had arisen for them in the work place, with mentors.
The Graduate Development Programmes reviewed engaged varied numbers of people. On average however, one service provider would work with approximately 50 graduates. The duration of programmes varied from 4 months to 12 months and the average cost per learner was approximately R7 500.00. None of the programmes tracked learner performance beyond the end of the project, and the numbers reported do not necessarily reflect the impact of the programme. However, while most participants reported that the experience had been valuable in that it exposed them to the work environment and gave them greater confidence in searching for work, generally less than 20% of participants were employed at the time of the evaluation.
Other placement initiatives are also being implemented by other parties: Provincial and local Government have a number of programmes in place where they are assisting to place young people in industry as well as in the public service (many as interns). In addition the private sector has established a number of initiatives to support improved placement of young people into the workplace.
For example, the Harambee Youth Accelerator is an initiative of the Yellowwoods Trust (and five of its investor businesses: Hollard, Clientele, Telesure, Direct Axis and Nando’s). It was established to enable young people that have a matric qualification and either no work experience (or very limited) to access work. Harambee has spent significant effort in developing relationships with employers – assisted by the fact that it was employer initiated. This entailed working with these employers and expanding the employer base – so as to convince them to actively prioritise the employment of school leavers into new entrant positions. Harambee’s proposition is that they will source, screen match – and where required bridge - young people to the job, and thus reduce the likelihood that the young person will not be suitable, competent or unreliable. Before recruiting young people Harambee maps the job with the employer, and then profiles the top performing employees currently doing this work. This generates a “profile of the attitudes and behaviours most desirable in this job” which is then used as the basis of the recruitment strategy. Any additional skills such as numeracy, competence in certain software or other skills are also identified.
Harambee recruits young people through established youth programmes, community networks and word of mouth. The Harambee process then includes an initial screening (to ensure that the applicants are disadvantaged, between the ages of 18 to 28 years of age, unemployed, have a matriculation (matric), and have had less than a years work experience). Those young people that qualify are invited to participate in a range of assessments (both written and interviews), which enables Harambee to assess the applicants mathematics and communication skills as well as generate a personality profile. The applicants receive feedback on this assessment to enable them to better make decisions. Further, based on the assessment those applicants that meet the requisite criteria are then engaged in a development programme. For certain jobs, such working in entry-level retail or food services, this may simply be interview preparation and some basic training on the attitudes required in the work place. For jobs requiring specific competence, such as working in a call centre, the preparation (bridging) programme can be between two and three months. The programme focuses on the technical skills required for the workplace, understanding the work environment and also rigorously monitors indicators such as punctuality, curiosity and peer engagement.
Harambee has instituted a strong monitoring and evaluation system and will be tracing young people that go through the programme, as well as employers to understand the impact of the programme against critical indicators such as: the number of young people placed in employment; the sustainability of the employment; the extent to which employed young people progress within the workplace and the extent to which these young people support a network of other young people to access employment and can make a contribution to the income of their families.
Thus far Harambee has placed over 800 candidates and has achieved the targeted retention of over 85%, at the 1-year mark. They have also secured 4,000 additional placement commitments for the coming 2 years. Anecdotal feedback relating to the programme suggests that employers are satisfied with the quality of the employees at this point in the programme, and, in interviews with employers, it has been suggested that there has been a significant reduction in churn. Harambee suggests that important lessons continue to be learnt as the programme is implemented: for example, they indicate that they have recognised the importance of employers adapting their management culture and process to support the absorption of first time employees into the workforce. They suggest that another learning pertains to the funding model, which they suggest has the promise of an effective and sustainable private-public partnership model for addressing youth employment.
Harambee has, since it launched, had a step-up in scale having been awarded grant funding from the Jobs Fund. Recently Harambee has identified the need to work proactively with the DoL Labour Centres to source young people and this partnership offers significant opportunities for expanding the impact of both programmes
Another similar programme has been initiated by the Redcap Foundation supported primarily by Mr Price though there are other donors: The Foundation realised that a key issue that they needed to address was that of unemployment and with this in mind they started Jumpstart in 2007. Initially it provided work experience for youth that had completed lifeskills training with a local NGO, with the anticipation that between 25-50% would be taken up into employment. The Jumpstart Program seeks to give unemployed youth between the ages of 18 and 30 a ‘jump start’ to their careers by providing youth with the opportunity to gain work experience, with a targeted outcome of 60% employment. Mr Price has partnered with Non-Profit organisations that provide training to unemployed youth. Mr Price then gives their candidates the opportunity to gain practical work experience in a Mr Price Group store, after which they receive a certificate. Where such placements are successful, store managers will offer many of the youth positions in the store.
The Jumpstart programme highlights the value of, effective screening with the possibility of support to address any gaps that may emerge so that by the time the learners enter the programme they are able to cope with the learning requirements of the programme. It also highlights the importance of providing young people with life skills that are of a consistent quality, and that have been shaped by the needs of the employer, so as to enable the young person to successfully enter the workplace. This is then complemented by a brief workplace experience, which provides the young person the chance to ascertain whether they wish to enter the sector, gives them access to a network and also provides a chance for the employer to establish the extent to which the young person is likely to be a good fit within the company. Other learning from this vignette relates to the value of working with a network of NGOs that have experience in working with young people and can source individual young people from a range of places. The programme also demonstrates the value of having multiple opportunities available to young people, so that different cohorts of young people can be placed including those that do - and those that do not -have a matric.

3. Occupational Programmes

These are accredited learning programmes which could include learnerships; skills training programmes or apprenticeships. These programmes were also referred to in the research undertaken by Budlender: this paper referred to research by the HSRC (Kruss et al, 2012) which interestingly found that both learnerships and apprenticeships are better at providing for female, black and lower socio-economic status individuals than the further or higher education systems. The research indicates that despite this, higher-skilled learnerships continue to be dominated by white and male learners, and African and female participants are over-represented in learnerships, which relate to services occupations. Further, this research suggested that these learnership opportunities were concentrated in metropolitan areas.

The HSRC research also suggests that those who completed learnerships or apprenticeships are likely to find employment. Of those doing apprenticeships, 70% found employment immediately after completing while a further 6% found a job relatively soon afterwards. Of those on learnerships, 86% were employed within a short period of completion. Budlender highlights the finding from the HSRC research that most of the jobs found were permanent positions, however it is noted that the research did not track these learners beyond initial placement. Other evaluative research, for example the Business Trust Tourism Learnership Project case study, found that many young people that found employment then lost it because of disciplinary issues, or in some cases, that they young people chose to leave, as they were not satisfied with the wage and/or the work.
In the evaluative work undertaken by the NYDA, which has supported the implementation of a substantial number of learnerships in partnership with FET Colleges, it was found that there were a number of common challenges:

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  Learners were not able to cope with the subject matter of the course and as a result completion rates were very low;
  
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  Relationships between the providers and the employers were often not in place, and as a result the work based learning components were poorly conceptualised and therefore badly implemented;
  
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  Many young people had not understood either the course requirements, or the opportunities which would be available after completion, and therefore became frustrated when the programme did not meet their expectations and/or the work was not what they were anticipating;
  
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  There were often delays in making funds available, which affected the payment of stipends and provision of equipment;
  
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  In a number of cases, learners who managed to complete the programme and write the final assessments, did not receive their certificates due to various problems in the accreditation arrangements;
  
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  Further, with regards to the institutional arrangements: it was indicated that these typically required high levels of cooperative management and funding from multiple institutions such as SETAs, the FETCs, NYDA and in some cases government departments. The evaluations suggested that this often made the programme difficult to implement effectively and that this worked against the programme achieving the desired impact.
  

However despite many challenges some programmes had significant success. Three examples implemented by different parties, which offer insight into what can make a programme effective, are offered here (these also draw on evaluations completed):

An FET College in Limpopo had identified a number of employment opportunities in the tourism industry associated with game parks. They worked with employers to identify their needs and their willingness to employ young people who had the necessary competencies. They then selected young people who exhibited existing interest in the employment areas (cooking), and who had the necessary academic skills to cope with the course work. Although the programme did not offer a full learnership, the skills programme was tailored to employer requirements. All the learners at the end of the programme were employed.
An FET College in East London used a similar method to identify opportunities in the automotive industry. The learning programme was designed with the employer and when learners undertook their work place experience, the College provided a mentor to assist learners make the links between their classroom theory, and to provide support if they struggled with a task. The programme had a much higher pass rate and employment rate of graduates than most of the other programmes.
The Forest Industries Education and Training Authority (FIETA)²¹ ran an extended learnership in furniture making across South Africa. In addition to the formal learning programme, they funded colleges to run business incubators for a sustained period beyond the programme. Learners who had completed the course were encouraged to form small companies who could receive business support from the college, use the tools and equipment of the college and receive technical support from college staff. The FIETA programme was one of the very few learnership programmes, which tracked learners beyond the completion of the programme. The findings of the tracer study suggested that significantly more young people had exited into self-employment than any of the other programmes reviewed. It also suggested that the incubation support had been found to be critical, and recommended that such support needed to be in place for a sustained period of time (potentially two years) so as to allow learners to access it on a needs basis.
These programmes generally run for 12 months and cost between R18 000 and R55 000 per learner. Data on completion and employment rates varied significantly across programmes, and it is not possible to make general findings. However in programmes where the majority of learners passed the learning programme and entered into employment after the programme, at least three of the success factors identified above were in place.

4. Entrepreneurial Development Programmes

This includes a diverse range of interventions which support young people as they set up businesses including the provision of finance; an array of training; business incubation and mentorship and support as the business is established. This is an area that is extremely contested with a number of studies suggested that young people, who lack work experience are not an appropriate group to target for entrepreneurial development. Many of these studies suggest that where young people do initiate a small business it is out of necessity and its likelihood of success is lower. Further, most of the evaluations reviewed as part of this study, focused on school based entrepreneurial support (as referred to previously). However, there were a number of other interventions to specifically enable young people to initiate their own businesses for which we had access to evaluative findings and these are considered here:

The National Youth Development Agency has invested significant funds and energy in entrepreneurial development, and staff members interviewed suggested that they have had some success, citing two examples of programmes they believed were particularly positive.
Interviewees highlighted the example of the Auto Café, which was developed out of a partnership with Massmart and Builders’ Warehouse. The intent was to develop young people as franchisees. UYF paid participants a stipend and Massmart and Builders’ Warehouse provided space at their stores and mentored and coached them to provide a full set of retail services. 15 young people were placed in each participating store and were then coached to become fully-fledged store managers. However, there was no data about the current status of this project.
The second example was a project implemented in partnership with Nestle around the 2010 World Cup – the bike ice cream programme. Participants were trained in all aspects of selling ice cream and then provided with pedal powered ice cream carts. If people were successful they were able to obtain a scooter, and it was reported that in some cases participants were ultimately able to open up mini warehouses.
The NYDA staff members, reflecting on these experiences, made a number of observations – which resonate with learning from other studies about youth entrepreneurship in South Africa. These comments include that:

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  South African young people have had limited exposure to entrepreneurship and express much greater interest in formal employment opportunities. Whereas immigrant youth in South Africa engage easily with the idea of “doing the manual work of making the wire animals” and “developing your business strategy”, many South Africans see the manual work as the end of the opportunity (these comments highlight the importance of the entrepreneurial education highlighted previously).
  
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  Programmes which carefully assess youth interest and competence prior to engaging them in entrepreneurial development programmes have higher success rates: for example, they commented that the Ikusasa supplier development programme assessed youth against multiple criteria as part of the selection criteria suggesting that this was critical to the success of the programme.
  
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  Further, interviewees indicate that low levels of numeracy among many school leavers have an impact on entrepreneurial capacity and interventions should consider how to provide additional support.
  
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  Finally, they indicate that much of the NYDA’s success in providing financial loans to young people has been when they invest in individuals or companies who already have highly developed technical and business skills, and simply require capital to expand their companies.
  

NYDA indicates that as a result of their learning, they will be shifting focus and will in the future no longer be offering SMME loan finance to young entrepreneurs. They will instead, grant finance in the form of micro-finance grants for survivalist and very small youth entrepreneurship initiatives as well as cooperatives grants for greater participation of youth in the cooperatives sector. The grant finance will start from R1 000 to a maximum of R100 000 for any individual or youth cooperative. Due to the financial constraints of the agency just over 37 000 young entrepreneurs will be supported in this financial year. NYDA states that strong non-financial support programme which will include a suite of services and products shall be a requirement for awarding grants in order to ensure preparedness of enterprises or cooperatives as well as sustainability. This suite will include, thorough assessment of business ideas, technical training, mentorship and coaching, relevant entrepreneurial training and support, after care and market linkage support and constant monitoring and evaluation. NYDA indicates that they will enter into a formal agreement with SEFA and IDC as well as other DFI’s in the near future to assess and hand over qualifying enterprises for funding by government funded institutions and commercial banks.

Other programmes reviewed tended to support these findings. For example, an initiative in the retail sector is that of the Clothing Bank, which runs a small business training programme for women of all ages: the Clothing Bank has developed relations with the major clothing retailers and they offer retailers a win-win efficient and cost-free solution to get rid of their excess stock. Excess stock is donated to the Clothing Bank and retailers can claim enterprise development points for the donation as the programme contributes towards the development of emerging enterprises. The Clothing Bank receives approximately 30 000 garments a month and the clothes are used “as a tool to teach unemployed mothers how to run small businesses. The clothes become the supply to the businesses. We are a training organization, using the clothing to teach the practical aspects of small business. We teach a wide range of skills and the key skill is the ability to trade. We are not asking participants to come up with a unique business model as the model is supplied to them”. The Clothing Bank implements a two-year small business training programme centred on selling clothes and this provides participants with the opportunity to earn at least R3500 per month.
The Clothing Bank states that whilst they have tried to work with young women they often do not succeed stating that the young women they work with remain dependent. They suggest that there are only 3 cases where a young woman was successful and one of these one was a Zimbabwean citizen, commenting that:
“Youth have many choices and they try various options so they lack perseverance because of this; because they are women they think their white knight is going to rescue them, which happens periodically....they come and go depending on how their life is going which we do not tolerate – you are either in or not, they are expected to stick it out through whatever is happening on a day to day basis.”
The Clothing Bank stated that to address this they consulted with Junior Achievement South Africa (JASA) for guidance but found JASA’s “success rate was almost as dismal. Working with them did not improve the performance of our young women dramatically”. The Clothing Bank suggest that their key learning is that interventions with young people should have “stronger support systems; and extensive one-on-one coaching which would cost more but closer support would be provided”. The Clothing Bank also indicate that such an intervention would need to include the provision of support for young women, who may have substance abuse issues or who may be grappling with physical abuse. The Clothing Bank believes both these should be addressed prior to joining the programme as a small business project could feed addiction and increase violence as partners power is threatened.
This example highlights the real commitment that goes into nurturing small businesses so that they succeed. This includes a lengthy period of training, incubation and support. It also involves consistent monitoring to address any issues that arise. This example illustrates the specific challenges related to enabling young people to initiate a small business – and highlights the issues that need to be taken into account. This does not suggest that this is not a possibility for young people but strongly emphasises that for such interventions to succeed there will be a need for very careful selection and strong support systems to be built into the programme: this would need to include one-on-one coaching which would cost more but would improve the ability of the young person to succeed.
The need for careful selection and training coupled with extended mentorship is reinforced by Ikusasa International which states that they rely on a two-phase candidate assessment, they indicate that this is based on 4 building blocks and 22 criteria. They also support the identification of opportunities and then provide training. Candidates are required to pass the training modules with 80%, and they then provide extended one-on-one mentorship. They state that this is critical to preparing a strong force of competent entrepreneurs. The programme is not only for young people – however they suggest that a large number are young people and that businesses succeed because of their focus on enabling candidates to, “emerge mature with a strong sense of taking responsibility for themselves and their business and this is due to the programme focus on attitude change. Candidates are guided to shift the dependent paradigm to a responsible, mature and independent paradigm”.

5. Public Employment

Public employment programmes are state initiatives aimed at providing unemployed people in poor communities the chance to earn an income while contributing to the development of South Africa. Since 2004 all public employment programmes have been required to report on the work opportunities they create through the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). The EPWP essentially requires government departments to spend funds in a manner that intentionally creates work for the poor.

The EPWP is a nation-wide government-led initiative aimed at drawing a significant number of unemployed South Africans into productive work in a manner that will enable them to gain skills and increase their capacity to earn income. The initiative is coordinated by the Department of Public Works (DPW) and is implemented by government departments and through institutions of civil society. The EPWP commenced in the 2004/05 financial year and targets were set for a five-year period ending on the 31 March 2009.
DPW, as the lead department of the EPWP, then initiated a process to extend the implementation time frame of the EPWP by a further five years. The second phase of the EPWP significantly increased the targets for EPWP job creation, based on the findings of the EPWP mid term review (undertaken in 2008), the achievements of the first phase, and the introduction of the EPWP wage incentive. Since 2009 the EPWP has begun to embrace ways in which civil society organisations can participate in the implementation, and to more actively identify how young people can benefit from the programmes. Several different types of programmes are run under the EPWP umbrella. These include:

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  The Community Work Programme
  
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  The national environment poverty alleviation programmes such as Working for Water and Working on Fire
  
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  National Youth Service programmes (such as NARYSEC)
  
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  Rural Roads Rehabilitation programmes e.g. Zibambele in KZN
  
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  Home and Community Based Care initiatives through provincial departments of Social Development and Health
  
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  Kha Ri Gude Mass Literacy Campaign
  
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  And a pilot initiative to support not-for-profit organisations to initiate work activities in their communities
  

Although the institutional arrangements for the programmes differ substantially, common features include payment of a daily wage to workers; clearly defined tasks with measurable outputs; alignment with the development objectives of that sector or local area and compliance with basic health and safety requirements for the area of work.

One of these programmes, the Community Work Programme (CWP) was initiated in 2007 and then recognised as a new component of the EPWP. In two years CWP’s growth has been from 1500 participants in 2009 to 99,179 participants in 2011. By 2014, the target is to establish a presence for the CWP in every municipality. The CWP provides participants with regular part-time work, typically two days a week or the monthly equivalent – adding up to 100 days a year. It is an area-based programme, targeting poor communities in rural and urban areas, and is designed as ‘an employment safety net and not an employment solution’, providing a minimum level of regular and predictable work while wider policy processes to create decent work take effect (TIPS, 2010).
The Seriti Institute, an organisation which acts as implementer for many CWP sites, believes that there is a need to develop a youth development companion programme, which can engage younger workers in additional activities such as life skills or raising awareness of study and other opportunities.
Similar international work programmes to the CWP exist such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). This programme was established as an act within the constitution guaranteeing a minimum of 100 days of wage employment to every rural household with unemployed adult members willing to do unskilled work. The aim of this act is to provide a fall-back employment source when other employment alternatives are scarce or inadequate. This programme achieved a far higher scale than any other programme has managed. By mid 2010 more than 55 million households were participating in the scheme – this is equivalent to approximately 4.5% of India’s population. In South Africa, the equivalent participation rate would be about 2.2 million people (Philip 2012).
The Kha Ri Gude Mass Literacy campaign engages over 70 000 volunteers across South Africa. The programme director notes that most of the volunteers are young people, and are engaged in the programme because they have nothing else to do. New partnerships with the ETDP SETA have allowed the programme to fund bursaries for 1 000 volunteers to register for teaching courses at UNISA and they hope this can be expanded.
Another key Public Works programmes is the National Youth Service (NYS) programme, which has been designed for unemployed young people. It was initially intended to provide young people with substantial experience of service (work) that benefited communities and to build their own competence; a qualification in an area where there was economic demand and a substantial programme of personal and citizenship development. The NYDA report that they have had the same challenges in providing a structured learning programme as reported by the EPWP and state they now tend to focus on providing the experience of work through a service project, and building civic awareness.
Lovelife and City Year South Africa are both NGOs, which have run NYS interventions for more than ten years. Lovelife has more than 8 000 volunteers nationally who work to support DoH and DSD Clinics and Drop In Centres, and run peer awareness and school based HIV programmes in hundreds of South African communities. The programme recruits young people who already volunteer in their communities and are well known by the different agencies they will support. Although the programme provides no structured learning, there is an extensive network of regional staff to support the volunteers in their work. An evaluation of Lovelife showed extraordinarily high levels of post project placement among participants. Almost all the Groundbreakers (volunteers who lead and receive a stipend) had left their one-year programme and continued on to employment or further learning. One of the most urgent needs of the Lovelife programme is to ensure the second tier of volunteers, the Mphintshis, are able to access the equivalent of the EPWP wage incentive for the days that they work.
City Year South Africa, which recruits 18-24 year old matriculants to spend a year providing after school and homework support in Gauteng primary schools believe that one of the most important factors for a successful programme is that young people want to participate, and find motivation in the additional value they add to the lives of the people they serve. They believe that participants who, during the programme, learn to see themselves as valuable and an asset, and who have high levels of empathy and engagement with the schools during their year of service, are far more likely to sustain their search for employment beyond the programme, even when it is difficult. They believe that it can take 6-24 months for a person to find a job after they complete their service.
The EPWP Unit is aware of the need to have programmes that directly meet the needs of young people and is committed to addressing the challenges related to public employment programmes internationally: recently the NYDA has agreed to a partnership with the EPWP Unit which will allow them to access the wage incentive to support civil society NYS interventions. It is anticipated that the NYDA pilot of civil society NYS programmes, to be supported by the EPWP wage incentive, offers substantial opportunities for careful monitoring and massification.

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