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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Exploring the Employment Tax Incentive: why, how and could it work?
The Employment Tax Incentive is a Government initiative, part of a multi-pronged strategy to tackle high youth unemployment in South Africa. The employer claims the incentive by reducing the total employee tax (Pay-As-You-Earn/PAYE) amount payable each month to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) by the total employment tax incentive amount for qualifying employees. It […]
The Hard Work of Soft Skills: Securing Job Placements for Technical and Vocational Education and Training College Graduates
The Further Education and Training Institute (FETI) recently undertook a study to investigate the links between skills gaps identified by employers and the curriculum offered at some Western Cape Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges, and to design and pilot a programme to strengthen the development of a pathway for college graduates into three identified industries. In this learning […]
The Language of Access
How we harness technological innovation in rural South African communities in order to close the education gap between urban and rural learners is as exciting as it is challenging. In this learning brief, Good Work Foundation describes what they are doing – and some of their challenges – at their Hazyview Digital Learning Centre, located in Shabalala village […]