Hands-on Learning Issue 25

Through the newly rebranded edition of our Hands-on Learning publication developed in June 2023, we hope to play a helpful role in synthesising information from innovators and implementers in civil society, supporting them to share what they have learnt so that others are able to draw from and build on their experiences. Blended learning: When […]
Learning Brief – Social Employment Fund partnership: Partnering to bring the SEF to communities across South Africa

This learning brief explores some of the lessons learnt from the first phase of the Social Employment Fund (SEF), a state-funded stimulus package for civil society organisations that work on a range of community development projects – referred to as Strategic Implementing Partners (SIPs). By design, the SEF encourages partnerships among the different Strategic Implementing […]
INX Prime Interview: Funding for the Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI) should continue

Bridget Hannah, DG Murray Trust’s Innovation Director, explains why funding for the Basic Education Employment Initiative should continue. Introduced through the President’s Employment Stimulus, 700,000 young people have been employed as teaching assistants at schools around the country. Read more here, and watch the interview below.
Basic Education Employment Initiative is scoring points on youth employment – don’t pull the funding plug

The Basic Education Employment Initiative is a viable and promising programme where every rand spent by the state does double the work. Yet there might not be funding in the long run. With just under half of young South Africans between the ages of 15 and 34 without any learning or earning opportunities, interventions addressing this crisis are often […]
Basic Education Employment Initiative is scoring points on youth employment – don’t pull the funding plug

With just under half of young South Africans between the ages of 15 and 34 without any learning or earning opportunities, interventions addressing this crisis are often caught between expanding reach and achieving real impact. The Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI) is a case in point. Born out of the Presidential Employment Stimulus, the BEEI was launched at the end of […]
Create Change: Step Up for Young People

South Africa has a resource with the potential to transform our economic and social reality. Unfortunately, we are missing this opportunity: It should go without saying that investment in children and young people is the source of future human capital. They should be at the forefront of strategies for economic growth and development in SA. […]
The Work Preparation Programme: Facilitating the college to work transition

With the third highest youth unemployment rate in the world at 24.3%, creative solutions are required to enhance the work readiness and skills of school leavers in our country. Increasingly, across Africa as well as in Europe, technical and vocational skills development (TVSD) – or “the acquisition of knowledge, practical competencies, knowhow and attitudes necessary to […]
What effect has the introduction of the Employment Tax Incentive had on youth employment probabilities in SA?

On 1 January 2014, the Employment Tax Incentive (ETI) was introduced to encourage South African employers to hire young and less experienced work seekers. DGMT took a closer look at this initiative, exploring why it was introduced and how it was being implemented. More recently, the South Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU), based at the University of Cape Town, explored what effect the […]
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 […]
Incentivising youth employment: What is the Employment Tax Incentive?

During the delivery of the 2014/15 National Budget to Parliament Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan said that the youth employment tax incentive recorded 56 000 beneficiaries in its first month. What is he talking about? The Employment Tax Incentive is an incentive aimed at encouraging employers to hire young and less experienced work seekers. It came into […]