South Africa quietly building the Youth Employment Service (YES) initiative

This research paper examines the Youth Employment Service (YES) initiative, a private sector-led programme launched in March 2018 to combat high youth unemployment in South Africa. While the initiative aims to create one million job opportunities over three years, the author argues that its success depends on overcoming structural barriers, including a poor education system, a technical recession, and the demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

• Youth unemployment in South Africa is significantly higher than the general unemployment rate; as of the second quarter of 2018, the rate for those aged 15 to 34 was 39%, compared to a total unemployment rate of 27%.
• The Youth Employment Service (YES) is a private sector-led initiative launched in March 2018, supported by government, labour, and business, including the CEO Initiative. It provides inexperienced youth with one year of work experience to improve their marketability, which is estimated to make them three times more likely to find permanent employment after the 12-month term.
• President Cyril Ramaphosa has established a target for YES to create 330,000 jobs for young people annually, with a long-term goal of one million opportunities over three years.
• To encourage private sector participation, the Department of Trade and Industry published amendments to the broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) framework on 28 August 2018. This allows businesses meeting YES criteria to improve their B-BBEE scorecard by up to two levels, in addition to receiving Employment Tax Incentives.
• The success of YES is threatened by three primary factors: a technical recession that hinders job creation, an education system that fails to prepare graduates for work (ranking 137th out of 139 countries in a 2016 World Economic Forum report), and the need to adapt skills for the 4th Industrial Revolution.

APA

South African Institute of International Affairs (2018). South Africa quietly building the Youth Employment Service (YES) initiative. https://saiia.org.za/research/south-africa-quietly-building-the-youth-employment-service-yes-initiative/

Chicago

South African Institute of International Affairs. South Africa quietly building the Youth Employment Service (YES) initiative. 2018. https://saiia.org.za/research/south-africa-quietly-building-the-youth-employment-service-yes-initiative/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=South African Institute of International Affairs |title=South Africa quietly building the Youth Employment Service (YES) initiative |date=12 October 2018 |url=https://saiia.org.za/research/south-africa-quietly-building-the-youth-employment-service-yes-initiative/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{southafricaninstituteofinternationalaffairs2018south, author = {{South African Institute of International Affairs}}, title = {{South Africa quietly building the Youth Employment Service (YES) initiative}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2018}, month = oct, url = {https://saiia.org.za/research/south-africa-quietly-building-the-youth-employment-service-yes-initiative/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }