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Stakeholders address youth employment issues

Wed, 09 May 2012 09:39

The Department of Labour (DoL) in partnership with the South African Youth Council (SAYC), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), and the Jobs for Youth Coalition will be hosting a National Youth Employment Summit.

The summit will be held under the theme: “Decent Work for Youth”. It is expected to be held at the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre in Boksburg, Gauteng.

The purpose of the two-day Summit is to provide a platform for young people, policy-makers and the social partners to exchange views on the national youth employment situation and to share good practice.

The Summit will also help raise awareness on the urgency of promoting decent work for youth. Furthermore, the Summit seeks to achieve the following specific objectives:

• Establish a platform for interaction among young people, policy-makers and the social partners on the youth employment challenge in the country.
• Identify and share good practice on youth employment policies and programmes implemented at the country level.
• Strengthen youth employment action and partnerships at the country level.
• To develop a coherent and broadly consulted perspectives towards the International Youth Employment Forum and the International Labour Conference (ILC).

It comes on the back of a growing world phenomenon of youth unemployment. Organisers say a critical element of the current global jobs crisis is the struggle of young people to enter and remain in the labour market.

Young people are three times more likely than adults to be out of a job. For those who do have a job, the quality of jobs is often an issue.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates, of the total of 200 million people unemployed worldwide, 75 million, or around 40 %, are young people. If the estimated 152 million young people living on less than $1.25 per day were added, the number of youth in an extremely vulnerable situation would be 225 million.

The Summit forms part of continuous work relating to the Jobs for Youth Campaign hosted in 2011 and 2010 by SAYC and the Young Communist League (YCL), SAYC is an autonomous, non-partisan & representative body of youth in civil society, whose member organisations are drawn from different backgrounds & sectors. The organisation also represents youth in various strategic national and international platforms.

The SAYC-anchored Summit is expected to be attended by high level policy makers, the social partners and young leaders. The ILO will provide a lead baseline presentation on Youth Employment and Decent Work for Youth.

The leaders of labour, business and the NYDA will be given an opportunity to present brief messages of support to the Summit.

The Summit participants will be given an opportunity to engage the presenters through brief plenary discussions to solicit clarity from the main speakers.

Alongside the Summit a number of institutions will be exhibiting their products and services for the benefit of young people. These will include government departments, state owned enterprises, SETAs, etc.

The proceedings and outcomes of the Summit will be packaged into an overall report for distribution to relevant stakeholders.