RURAL YOUTH PROGRAMMES BY CHARNDRÉ EMMA KIPPIE
Creating agents of change
The National Rural Youth Service Corps (NARYSEC)
A focus on providing character building programmes, soft and hard skills training, and encouraging development of the youth in rural areas Empowering the youth The National Rural Youth Service Corps (NARYSEC) is South Africa’s youth skills development and employment programme, which acts as a youth flagship programme of the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development - which also forms part of the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP). NARYSEC is dedicated to facilitating and encouraging soft and hard skills training in rural communities. The goal is to empower the youth in rural areas to upskill and garner the capacity to undertake various rural infrastructure and development
projects. At present, NARYSEC is transforming youth from rural areas, growing ‘job seekers’ into active job creators in their own right. These admirable efforts are breaking the generational cycle of dependency on social grants from the South African government. The impact of the NARYSEC To date, more than 25 244 young people have been trained as a result of the programme. The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development has also previously partnered with the Agricultural Research Council to train around
38 | Public Sector Leaders | June 2021
900 agri-paraprofessionals in smallholder livestock and dairy production. Many candidates in the programme have also received training in vegetable gardening and soil sampling, in order to start their own farms and provide for their families. Speaking on creating selfsustainable youths in rural areas, Hon. Thoko Didiza, Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, said: “South Africa will never change if young people just wait for government to provide. Let us go to the farm and start farming. Once you are done with the
