In response to the soaring figures of youth unemployment, Premier of the Free State Province Honourable Ace Magashule has acknowledged that something drastic must be made to turn the situation around.
The view of this administration is that “Youth unemployment is not only a statistical matter, but it is at the core of the quality of life, as it negatively affects the welfare, livelihood, development and progress of youth. Therefore, it is obviously imperative for us to act decisively to intervene and arrest the challenges of youth unemployment”.
The Premier has instructed that a Youth Indaba Report back be convened within the next six months where the government will create an opportunity to give feedback on the resolutions of the Youth Indaba held in 2012. The interaction will articulate the objectives that have been met by the provincial government on matters relating to empowerment and development of the youth.
On an ongoing basis, we are taking stock of all the achievements that the sector has made since the dawn of a new era. Secondly, we are creating conditions for youth to ponder and reflect on the challenges that the youth are still facing 20 years into the democratic dispensation.
We are mainstreaming youth development to ensure that it is integrated into the mainstream development agenda of our province and country at all levels of government, which will place the youth at the summit of the country’s developmental agenda as espoused in the National Development Plan Vision 2030. This will also ensure that youth development permeate through every aspect of our society.
As a province, we are already investing a lot in our youth in the form of Grant Funding that seeks to fund youth entrepreneurs within the Department of Economic Development and SMME.
Our youth are privileged with Bursaries in scarce skills. We give them overseas study opportunities as well as access to learning opportunities in the national universities, the universities of technology, private colleges and the FET sector.
We have signed agreements with various industry SETAs to give them experiential training in major industries of their training, in the private sector and government departments.
Our learnerships and internships also serve this purpose. The on-coming departmental budget votes will enable each department to spell out in real money terms what their youth development mainstreaming will entail.
