During his State of the Nation speech President Cyril Ramaphosa highlighted the challenges faced by young people in this country. He specifically highlighed the 'Neet' challenge of those 'not in employment, education, or training'.
"Millions of young people aged 15 to 24 years are currently not in employment, education or training."
"There are many who have a matric, a diploma or a degree who cannot find a job, or do not have the means to start a business."
"While economic growth is essential to reduce unemployment, we cannot wait to provide the work that many of democracy’s children need."
"As government we have taken steps to address the youth unemployment challenge."
"Three years ago, building on the success of the Expanded Public Works Programme, we launched the Presidential Employment Stimulus."
"Through this programme, we have created more than 1.7 million work and livelihood opportunities."
"Through the stimulus, we have placed more than 1 million school assistants in 23,000 schools, providing participants with valuable work experience while improving learning outcomes."
The Teacher Assistants programme was a very popular scheme, both with the young people who took part, and the schools where they worked. The extra pair of hands was welcomed in the schools and was considered to be very helpful to over-stretched teachers.
The President didn't the opportunity during his speech to announce when the programme would be repeated.
"Through the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention, we established SAYouth.mobi as a zero-rated platform for unemployed young people to access opportunities for learning and earning."
"Over 4.3 million young people are now engaged on the network and 1.6 million have so far secured opportunities."
"We have, working together with the National Youth Development Agency, set up a number of initiatives to provide opportunities for young people including the National Youth Service and the Youth Employment Service."
"These programmes matter because work matters to people. The NYDA has played a key role in assisting a number of young people to start their own businesses."
The SAYouth.mobi platform has proved popular with young people and in a year when a general election is coming it was always going to be a government achievement that the President was going to showcase.
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