The National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) welcomes President Jacob Zuma’s pronouncement of 2010 as the year of action and is ready to heed his call. The President’s concession that the unemployment rate for young people is substantially higher than the average is a step in the right direction towards integrated youth development. The NYDA is particularly impressed by the bold undertaking made by the President to subsidise the cost of hiring young workers to encourage firms to take on inexperienced staff.
“For some time now young people have had to bear the brunt of closed opportunities as a result of companies that are unwilling to absorb unskilled and inexperienced young people. With the introduction of these subsidies young people will be able to access the job market wherein they will then learn the necessary skills making them employable,” says NYDA CEO Steven Ngubeni.
The NYDA also views support of youth Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as another means for job creation and as such calls for government to scale up support to this sector. The NYDA already supports entrepreneurship initiatives through various business development and financing methods including mentorship, cooperatives funding and group lending methods.
Linked to this is the intensification of skills development through various programmes. Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is expected to set aside a substantial allocation for the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) and the National Youth Service (NYS) Programme. The NYS Programme is an NYDA programme which enables youth to acquire skills and occupational experience while they serve their communities in areas of, among others, home based care and construction. The NYDA will also be requiring financial support for its National Senior Certificate
Second Chance programme aimed at assisting failed matriculants to pass their subsequent exams.
The NYDA is already responding to the call by the President to establish its structures throughout the country. As part of its strategy, the NYDA seeks to have youth advisory centres in all the 283 municipalities so that its accessibility including to the most rural communities can be improved.
To achieve this NYDA needs financial resources and buy-in from municipalities, most of which have already demonstrated a keen interest. “We currently have 113 youth advisory centres at municipalities and we are ready to work faster to establish more structures throughout the country,” says Ngubeni.
The NYDA is confident that with the pronouncements made by President Zuma in his address and the necessary resources attached to each commitment, the country will soon be ready to turn the tide in the area of youth development.
“The president said we need to invest in our youth; we now rely on the finance minister to support our plans when he tables his budget vote in Parliament on Wednesday,” concludes Ngubeni.
For information contact:
Siyabonga Magadla
Cell: 083 686 9016
Refilwe Mphane
Cell: 084 308 5860
Issued by: National Youth Development Agency
16 February 2010
Source: National Youth Development Agency (http://www.nyda.gov.za/)
