Open Day connects youth to employment opportunities

29 June 2017

 

As part of Youth Month celebrations, the City of Johannesburg on Wednesday June 28 hosted a Youth Open Day at Naledi Community Hall in Soweto, Region D, to assist the youth gain access to employment and economic opportunities.

 

This was one of the activities the City held throughout the month to commemorate the 41st anniversary of the June 16 1976 Soweto student uprising, when hundreds of youths were shot dead or maimed by apartheid police for protesting against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in black schools.

Forty-one years later and 23 years into the country’s democracy, the youth are faced with a different set of challenges – unemployment and the lack of economic opportunities. It was against this background that the City called on its various entities and departments as well as its external stakeholders to exhibit and give presentations on available opportunities at the Youth Open Day.

The participants included Tshepo 1 Million, Jozi SME Hub, the City’s Health and Social Department, the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) and the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator.

Solly Monaheng, the City’s Region D Community Engagement Officer, said the Open Day was about giving the youth career and empowerment guidance. “One of the things we hope to achieve through this initiative is to get the youth into employment. As you know, unemployment is very high among young people.

“In a month’s time, we will have a meeting with all our stakeholders here who will give us a report on how many young people have been employed,” said Monaheng.

Harambee, which works with the City to connect employers looking for entry-level talent to young jobseekers, has one million employment candidates on its system.

Tshepo 1 Million is a Gauteng government and private sector initiative that seeks to empower one million young people by 2019 through skills training, job placement and entrepreneurship development.

Tshepo 1 Million representative Mduduzi Mahlangu said the initiative was about assisting young people to gain skills. “We help young people between the ages of 18 and 34 with at least a Grade 9 education to access opportunities.

“We have three different types of opportunities that we help them with. These are skills development through learnerships, internships and volunteerism; entrepreneurial opportunities that help young people start their own businesses; and job placements,” said Mahlangu.