Employment programmes make a difference

The Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES) and the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention (PYEI) have made a difference in the lives of the 1.7 million people reached through the two programmes.

This is according to President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was addressing the National Assembly during the Questions for Oral Reply session held in the house on Tuesday.

“Between October 2020 and December 2023, the Presidential Employment Stimulus has created work and livelihood opportunities for over 1.7 million people. Of the participants in the various programmes, 65% are women and 85% are young people.

“The Presidential Employment Stimulus and the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention have made a real difference in the lives of millions of young people,” the President said.

President Ramaphosa said although the PES has “built an institutional architecture that is able to scale rapidly”, fiscal constraints have slowed its ability to expand although it has been expanded to March next year.

“The focus in the coming year is therefore on taking the quality of outcomes to the next level, focusing on enhancing the work experience for participants as well as on the quality of the social value they create for communities.

“This includes skills development – both ‘soft’ skills derived from work experience as well as more formal skills development,” he said.

The PYEI initiative was announced in 2020, and in February 2024, the President held a presidential youth engagement in Cape Town reflecting on the three years since the initiation of the Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES) and PYEI.

Honing in further on skills development on Tuesday, President Ramaphosa highlighted that government driven programmes such as the Social Employment Fund and the Basic Education Employment Initiative also serve the same skills development objective in different ways.

“The Presidential Youth Employment Intervention’s approach to skills development focuses on demand-led skilling, which is about increasing the relevance and delivery of interventions that address current skills gaps and emerging needs.

“To take forward this work, the Department of Higher Education and Training, with the support of the Presidency, has established demand-led skilling workstreams in priority growth sectors. This is to ensure that skilling interventions respond to demand and encourage inclusive hiring for young people and marginalised communities.

“The Presidential Youth Employment Intervention, in partnership with the National Skills Fund, has also launched [the] Jobs Boost, a R300 million outcomes fund that will fund implementing organisations to skill 4 500 marginalised young people and place them in sustainable, quality job[s],” he said.

President Ramaphosa said the work done through these initiatives has “established a firm foundation for these initiatives to make an even greater contribution to addressing poverty, unemployment and inequality in our country”. – SAnews.gov.za