John Perlman speaks to Bridget Hannah, a DG Murray Trust Innovation Director, about the Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI). Born out of the Presidential Employment Stimulus, the BEEI was launched at the end of 2020 and is in its fourth phase. The programme has created more than 700,000 short-term work opportunities for young people across 22,000 schools, with an average spend of about R6-billion per phase. Run by school management, the bulk of the money has gone straight into the hands of young people for doing a range of tasks including administrative work, gardening, maintenance, data capturing and implementing literacy programmes.
Listen to the full interview below.