TRAILBLAZER BY FIONA WAKELIN
Saying YES to youth job creation YES CEO, Ravi Naidoo
T
he Youth Employment Service (YES) is a 100% private sector-funded initiative which collaborates with business, government, labour, and other stakeholders to put thousands of young people into their first private sector job. We spoke to YES CEO, Ravi Naidoo, about the crucial issue of youth job creation in South Africa. AS A SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST, WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME OF YOUR MOST MEMORABLE MILESTONES OVER THE LAST 25 YEARS? I have been fortunate to be able to have an impact on some significant issues. All of these had an element of the right place, right time, and right team. In my twenties, in the labour movement, I was part of the team that restructured the Unemployment Insurance Fund to include domestic workers, and one million people benefitted. A few years later I was in the Cabinetappointed team that introduced the child support grant, which has seen an extra 16 million youth and their families benefit. When I joined the state, I was the lead executive for the establishment of South Africa’s official Green Fund. My favourite memory is when, as official DBSA convenor of the Health-sector Roadmap, I managed the stakeholder process that eventually changed the country’s disastrous HIV/ AIDS stance. YOU JOINED YES IN NOVEMBER 2021. PLEASE DESCRIBE THE PROGRAMMES AND SERVICES OFFERED BY THE ORGANISATION. We approach the private sector to create jobs (either within their
18 | Public Sector Leaders | June 2022
