Mobile operator Vodacom has partnered with Wholesale and Retail Sector Education and Training Authority (W&RSETA) to place a total of 500 graduates from the Free State, Northern Cape, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Eastern Cape at varied Vodacom branches for 12-month training programmes. The partnership is recruiting its cohort from the Central University of Technology; the University of Fort Hare; eThekwini, Eastcape Midlands and Port Elizabeth Colleges; as well as Letaba, Ingwe and Buffalo City TVET colleges. 

The announcement was made in a virtual briefing which was attended by the Free State Education MEC, Tate Makgoe, amongst other notable guests on Monday 21 June. Makgoe pledged his support for the programme and provided insight into the challenges facing his department with regards to finding young people jobs in the province.

Makgoe says his department and the Free State Provincial Government as a whole are doing their best to provide bursaries for tertiary study for the youth in the province. They are, however, struggling to place the graduates post-study and he believes this is where the private sector must come in and step up. He urges Vodacom to encourage others in the private sector to help absorb graduates.

South Africa’s unemployment rate rose by 0,1% in the first quarter of 2021. The official unemployment rate for January to March 2021 now sits at 32,6% - the highest since Stats SA began the survey in 2008. The expanded unemployment rate is now 42,6%.

The expanded unemployment rate takes into consideration discouraged work seekers, those who have given up on gaining employment. The Covid-19 pandemic has been said to have contributed to the rising number of discouraged work-seekers. Vodacom says it does not see its placement programme as a silver bullet to South Africa’s unemployment woes, but believes that it’s just a step in the right direction.

Whilst the debate on media platforms suggest that the number of unemployed graduates is high, Tashmia Ismail, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Youth Employment Service (YES), previously said that university graduates only constitute a mere 8% of the overall unemployment rate in South Africa. Ismail says South Africans without a matric certificate or those with only a matric are in fact the most unemployed in the country - roughly 56% - and it is them that we need to focus on. 

YES is a joint national initiative between business, government and labour that aims to address the youth unemployment crisis in South Africa by providing 12-month quality work experiences to unemployed youth. Ismail encourages business owners to not just automatically hire university graduates, but rather take a risk, on that which is unexpected.

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