Empowering businesses to create jobs for unemployed youth

The Youth Employment Service (YES) is a private sector youth employment programme affecting broad-based change across sectors, provinces, and the country.

We address the country’s youth unemployment crisis by empowering businesses to create jobs for unemployed youth. We’re a youth-focused and business-led non-profit organisation that is not reliant on government funding, making our jobs 100% private sector funded.

We work with leading businesses in various sectors to provide 12-month quality work experiences for unemployed young people to be future managers, skilled employees, professionals, change-makers, and entrepreneurs who will drive their communities and the South African economy forward. For many youth, this is their first employment in the private sector and YES provides a vital first step on their journey to long term employment.

For business, YES is a key pipeline through which you can select, develop and de-risk undiscovered, standout talent, previously locked out of the economy. We provide businesses with a route to sustainability and long-term value.

Businesses can improve their B-BBEE scorecard by up to two levels while affecting broad-based transformation. Beyond B-BBEE, many businesses are also integrating YES into their environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies to have a meaningful and measurable impact on communities and the environment.

There are two ways business can participate in YES: they can place youth within their own company structures, or they can place youth in one of YES’s 33 vetted host partners through the turnkey solution.

A popular integrated solution for mining and resource companies

YES is becoming a popular integrated solution for mining and resource companies to not only help them meet their ESG goals, but also to fulfil their social and labour plan (SLP) contract.

Through YES’s turnkey solution, resource and mining companies can create youth work experiences with communitybased NPOs working in some of the most critical sectors in South Africa such as healthcare, education, digital, early childhood development, and conservation where youth live, meaning young people can play an important part in building their own communities.

The YES host partners help capacitate local businesses, schools, clinics and NPOs with dynamic young people who are eager to learn and grow their careers. This feeds into poverty eradication and upliftment of communities and economies beyond the mines these towns surround.

The YES model can also see young people deployed in community-based SMEs, effectively boosting the capacity of local businesses to deliver goods and services to their neighbouring mines and beyond.

Take skills development programmes up a level

YES also allows mines and other businesses to take their existing skills development programmes up a level by pairing them this work-readiness initiatives post-training. The YES turnkey solution can help companies deliver on their SLPs, integrate into their environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals and achieve their sustainable development goals (SDG) as needed by their investors and consumers.

Build a legacy for you(th)

YES has a current run rate of creating 2 000+ high quality jobs for youth per month, predominantly in the private sector. Since inception, YES and its partners have injected R5.5 billion into the economy through YES Youth salaries. A total of 40% of YES youth alumni are currently employed post-programme, which is double the national average.

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