The forgotten generation

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Daily I am inundated with emails to apply for our Apprenticeship – applications from as remote and as far as the villages of Kwa Zulu, to Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo.

All these applicants have a few things in common – irrespective of race, they are all mostly young, between 17 and 30 years of age and looking for an opportunity to get a jump-start on life and career building. 

The unsuccessful ones as applicants – the ones that touch me the most, are the ones who have no form of tertiary education. No further education and training – just a matric and passion to make it one day and live the proverbial “South African dream”.

These young people having been born between 1984 and 1996 have largely lived in a society free of Apartheid, been afforded all the freedoms of democracy and grew up an era of opportunities for all.

Yet this is not the case.

We are arguably worse off as a country now - with an increased population size, centralisation of economic progress to the urban areas and deep discarding of rural communities has all lead to this generation of young people becoming ever more marginalised and slipping into despair.

This is the unemployed, under-skilled and under-educated youth of South Africa – the future of this great land, the leaders of tomorrow.

With no skills, how will they lead?

With no education, where will they find a job, create jobs or be internationally competitive?

With no job, how will they feed their families?

Without them – how can we have a nation?