Create new connections to opportunity for young people.

In South Africa, tapping into social networks is the most common way of accessing opportunity, but most young people that are not in employment, education or training (NEET) lack the connections to find work. approximately 42% of young people in south africa (aged 15 to 24) live in households with no employed adults and fewer financial resources, making it difficult to build social and economic connections on their own.26 five-year aim:

Young people seeking work are diverse, with differing interests and life challenges that affect their ability to connect to, and fully participate in, the workplace. Often employers do not fully recognise the constraints of transport, the need for thorough workplace orientation and the financial pressures of being the sole wage-earner in a household.

There is often a skills mismatch between the work young people look for and the skills that they have, with many young people describing a “dream job” that is quite different to their current work and educational experiences. 27, 28 There must be an expansion of work-skilling and strategies that assist young people to match their aptitudes and skills with work opportunities. Both youth development organisations and potential employers can play an important role in capacitating young people for the world of work.

We must also be aware of the changing nature of formal work, so we will continue to include the possibilities emerging from the just energy transition. 29 At the same time, the formal employment sector is shrinking, while the informal sector is growing. The former now constitutes 68.5% of jobs (down from 71.2% a decade ago) and the latter has increased from 15.5% to 18.5% over the same period. 30 Support for knowledge capital transfer into informal socio-economic networks to enable the semi-skilling of young people is central to DGMT’s work.

› Support demonstrated pathways to further learning and earning opportunities for 1 million young people that are NEET.

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