Opportunity 9: Reflection and Analysis
What it’s really like to be at school in South Africa
As a country, we have committed to greater access to education for all children. The importance of early childhood education (the first five years of a child’s life) to improve children’s capacity to learn and thrive is now firmly on the national agenda. Even the significance of prenatal care is making inroads in our attempt […]
Posted on 26 Nov 2018
Youth will shape the South Africa of tomorrow – let’s get behind them today
Every January we as South Africans focus our full attention on the successes, and failures, of the education system as marked by the Matric results. We celebrate the individual shining examples of extraordinarily bright students, of inspiring principals that produce amazing results against all the odds, and take a step back to assess how we […]
Tags: Youth, Youth employment, Youth Identity
Posted on 17 Feb 2017
Casting some light on the new 3 Stream Schooling System 2017
Over the last few months there has been talk of a new schooling system planned for South Africa. In January, a few online articles appeared but the detail has been lacking and equivocal. Through a discussion hosted by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) in February, we managed to unearth a little more. The […]
Tags: Enterprising School Leavers
Posted on 11 Apr 2016
Five things to think about beyond matric results
Every January the whole country focusses in on a single number: the matric pass rate. For many this number comes to define the state of young people, and we tend to leave the conversation there. But for school-leavers, the matric results are not just the end of one journey, they are the start of a […]
Tags: Enterprising School Leavers, Matric results, Supporting young people
Posted on 7 Jan 2016
The South African Child Gauge 2015: Youth – an opportunity to interrupt the intergenerational transmission of poverty
The 10th issue of the South African Child Gauge, focusing on the theme of youth and the intergenerational transmission of poverty, was released last week on the 10th of November [2015] by the University of Cape Town’s Children’s Institute. It examines the situation of young people aged 15 – 24 and highlights the need for a range of interventions that continue to […]
Tags: Child Gauge, Enterprising School Leavers, Youth
Posted on 16 Nov 2015
Making employment in the non-profit sector a “first choice” for young people
I studied law and accounting at university, so I am as surprised as anyone to find myself, 12 years into my working life, having only worked for non-profit organisations (NPOs). What is even more surprising to me is that I am exactly where I am meant to be. That being said, it appears to me […]
Tags: Employment in the NPO sector, Youth employment
Posted on 6 Mar 2015
What promise does youth policy hold for transforming the situation of South Africa’s youth?
In October 2014, under the auspices of the United Nation’s Special Envoy for Youth, the First Global Forum on Youth Policies was hosted in Baku, Azerbaijan.[1] The aim of the conference was to bring together young activists and experts, development professionals, and government representatives to gauge progress made on the World Programme of Action for Youth […]
Tags: Game-Changing Leaders, National Youth Policy
Posted on 2 Feb 2015
“Nothing for young people without young people”
Recently, South Africans were invited to comment on the draft South African National Youth Policy 2014-2019, as published in Government Gazette Notice 15 of 2015. The nation, young people in particular, was requested “to give their opinion, suggestions and to rewrite sections of the draft policy or even the entire draft policy whether individually or as […]
Tags: Game-Changing Leaders, National Youth Policy
Posted on 2 Feb 2015
Expanding education and training opportunities for young people through online work-skills or vocational training programmes
In South Africa, e-learning has been used in corporates for some time to develop employee’s skills – functional and behavioural – and knowledge. Increasingly, in recent years, we have also started to see Universities introduce online programmes as part of their degree or diploma offering, while a handful of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) […]
Tags: Online training, Vocational Education, vocational training
Posted on 9 Jan 2015
Internships – helping young people get a foot in the door. You might just be impressed by whom you let in.
There are countless scholarly articles describing and evaluating internship programmes in just about every industry. Although the quality of the internship experience varies from employer to employer, generally these studies find that internship programmes are valuable in helping students make a connection between their studies and the world of work. It also assists them to […]
Tags: Enterprising School Leavers, Internship Programmes, Internships, Resources on Internships
Posted on 29 Oct 2014
