PROFILE YOUTH EMPLOYMENT SERVICE
A true innovator
in youth job creation
The DNA of non-profit Youth Employment Service (YES) is to work with corporate South Africa to get unemployed young people of South Africa into jobs.
Y
ES is one of the highest impact, private-sector funded jobs programme in the country. It offers business an opportunity to improve their B-BBEE levels by registering with YES, while simultaneously investing in youth jobs and creating much-
needed youth participation in the economy. YES has already proven itself to be one of the true innovators in South Africa, generating over R4 billion in youth salaries and over 70 000 quality work experiences in three years – and with no state funding. More than 1 800 businesses have already signed on to co-create a future that works.
New CEO has 25 years’ experience in social change and impact programmes Newly appointed YES CEO, Ravi Naidoo’s tenure at YES started with the country facing some of the worst unemployment statistics it has ever seen. The Covid pandemic, the riots and social unrest in July, and massive social problems has seen the jobs market lose in excess of two million jobs since January 2020. Naidoo joined YES with more than 25 years’ experience in creating and managing a range of social change and impact programmes. For much of this time, he has worked with trade unions, the public sector, and private sector fund management, finding ways to implement programmes in complex institutional environments. He is therefore ideally placed to lead YES in helping with South Africa’s youth unemployment issues. “Time is not on South Africa’s side. The country – and its key social partners – must get to grips with the hard choices in the labour market. If massive interventions are not made, and soon, the vortex of rising unemployment and its accompanying social unrest will drag down the economy and, with it, the foundations of our young democracy,” he warns. “Despite the gloomy outlook, there is also much hope. South African businesses are heeding the call to get involved in youth employment creation – YES’s 1 800 corporate partners already attest to that.”
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