Towards a Youth Employment Strategy for South Africa

In response to the high and growing rate of youth unemployment in South Africa, the DBSA initiated a project in September 2010 to develop a high-level youth employment strategy. The purpose of the study was to review current government programmes for promoting youth employment, in order to identify programmatic measures that will absorb a far greater number of young people into the labour market and allow them to engage in more income-generating activities than is currently the case. In order to provide a comprehensive analysis the following individual papers were developed: 1. A demographic profile of young people in South Africa in 2010, to enable a deeper and more textured understanding of who the unemployed youth are, where they are located and what their level of educational attainment is; 2. Barriers to education faced by young people in equipping them with the skills needed to enter the labour market; 3. Current programmes, institutions and activities implemented by the government to create employment for young people; 4. An international review of government interventions that support young people in finding employment; and 5. Current gaps and misalignments in South Africa’s public strategy for providing employment for young people.